Sandra Tiffany

By Gwen Morrison

Each month, iParenting.com spotlights a mother who inspires and moves us, who embodies the qualities that we all admire in a person, a woman and a mother. Above all, the Mom of the Month is dedicated to her children. Rich or poor, famous or not, she shines as an example of what mothering is all about.

Meet November's Mom of the Month, Nevada State Assemblywoman and mother Sandra Tiffany, who fought her way back from a life-threatening illness and now works to protect other Americans.

When Nevada State Assemblywoman Sandra Tiffany was traveling in California last summer, she had no idea she would soon be fighting for her life. She now considers herself a survivor and is on the trail to bring awareness to an often under-diagnosed and under-treated illness called sepsis.

"I became nauseous and sought medical attention at Providence St. Joseph Medical Center in Burbank," Tiffany says. "A bacterial infection related to a blocked kidney stone was the source of my sudden change in health."

While in the hospital, Tiffany's condition worsened quickly. "After I underwent surgery to remove the blocked kidney stone, I went into septic shock," she says. "I was rushed to the intensive care unit. I was in a medically-induced coma and on life support." The bacterial infection was shutting down Tiffany's vital organs.

The sepsis that struck Tiffany is caused by an overwhelming systemic response to infection, which can rapidly lead to loss of limbs, organ dysfunction and ultimately death. According to the Society of Critical Care Medicine (SCCM) in Des Plaines, Ill., symptoms of sepsis include reduced mental alertness, confusion, shaking, chills, fever, nausea, vomiting and diarrhea in the presence of infection. Patients with sepsis rapidly get worse.

"The body's normal reaction to infection goes into overdrive, setting off a cascade of events leading to widespread inflammation and clotting that can cause the body's normal functions to shut down," Tiffany says.

Sepsis has been described as the No. 1 cause of death in the non-coronary intensive care unit with mortality rates ranging from 28 to 50 percent. The illness claims more lives than stroke, breast cancer and lung cancer combined. "Each year more than 750,000 Americans develop severe sepsis, which equals more than 2,000 new cases per day in the United States, and the numbers are expected to increase," Tiffany says. "I want to increase awareness about the disease to ultimately improve hospital reporting and tracking."

As reported by the SCCM, severe sepsis will claim the lives of as many as 215,000 Americans each year. The incidence of severe sepsis is expected to rise to one million by the end of the decade as the population ages.

It was through her personal experience with sepsis that Tiffany discovered the health care system is lacking the standards needed to guide timely diagnoses and appropriate treatment. "I was alarmed to find out that if I had been treated somewhere else, I may not have been diagnosed in time and may not have received the most effective course of therapy that ultimately saved my life," she says.

According to the SCCM, current treatment for patients with severe sepsis consists of supportive care – including antibiotics, mechanical ventilation or kidney dialysis – but none of these measures specifically treats severe sepsis. Many companies have tried and failed to develop an effective treatment.

Tiffany was eventually treated with Xigris™, the only FDA-approved therapy in the United States to treat severe sepsis. "Doctors held out little hope and summoned my family to my bedside," Tiffany says. "In a last ditch effort to save my life, doctors administered a new drug called Xigris™."

The use of the drug also included the risk of side effects, like bleeding, so Tiffany was not out of the woods. A call went out to family and friends for blood donations. At that point, it was touch and go. However, six days later, her life support was removed, and 13 days after that, she was released from the hospital.

"Americans should know how to ask physicians if a family member or friend's sudden life-threatening health decline might be sepsis," Tiffany says. "They need to know treatment is available."

Recently, Tiffany developed model legislation to establish a public reporting system where vital sepsis information can be collected. The legislation is designed to create reporting requirements that account for hospitals' incidence of sepsis, treatment procedures and outcomes. Tiffany is urging her colleagues from other states to introduce this legislation, in hopes of creating greater accountability, improved treatment and more cost-efficient systems.

"The model legislation was first introduced at Women in Government, a bi-partisan educational association for elected women in state government," Tiffany says. "My goals also include that the state departments of health account for sepsis cases and its treatment within the public health system, which will ensure quality of care as well as save state dollars in uncompensated hospital costs related to treatment of sepsis."

Sandra Tiffany plans to introduce the legislation in the Nevada Legislature during the 2003 session. For now, she is back on the campaign trail, having just won the Nevada primary election. Miraculously, she has made a full recovery from her illness and says she has a new respect for life as well as a new will to succeed. As a mother who uses her relentless passion to effect change in the community, she is thrilled to be a leader in the fight to increase sepsis awareness.