Chance discovery could save millions from sepsis
A critical-care physician at EVMS believes he has found something that has eluded medicine for centuries: a cure for sepsis.
Paul Marik, MBBCh, the EVMS Foundation Distinguished Professor in Internal Medicine and Chief of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine, developed the new treatment while caring for patients in the general intensive care unit at Sentara Norfolk General Hospital in Norfolk, Va. His formula consists of three common compounds given intravenously: vitamin C, steroids and thiamine.
Evidence of the effectiveness of this new treatment is breathtaking.
In a retrospective study, Dr. Marik and his co-authors compared two groups – treated in the same ICU – before and after discovery of Dr. Marik’s vitamin c protocol. Before the treatment was available, 19 of 47 patients diagnosed with sepsis died from the disease. In contrast, there were no deaths from sepsis among 47 similar patients who received the new treatment. A laboratory analysis conducted by scientists at Old Dominion University independently confirmed the treatment’s effectiveness.
Sepsis kills 8 million people annually. Read the story in the EVMS Digital Magazine for more about his life-threatening disease and the dramatic events that led to this remarkable discovery.