Sepsis Awareness in the Bay Area

 Three Posters Around San Francisco Bring Awareness to the 3rd Leading Cause of Death – Sepsis 

 Sepsis Alliance, Jill Kogan Blake, and Christina Flach have teamed up to spread awareness about the signs of sepsis and the importance of early intervention through an intensive campaign in the San Francisco public transport systems. 

San Francisco, Calif, December 3, 2018 –  Today, Sepsis Alliance and a small group of advocates are working together to alert the public about the danger of sepsis. Their efforts are kicking off with an awareness campaign stemming from the organization’s It’s About TIME™ initiative. The current campaign invites the public to, “Take the time, Learn the signs at sepsis.org/quiz/bay-area.” It features three poster designs, which are now hung throughout the BART and Golden Gate Ferry transportation systems.

The most widespread design, which can be found on a third of BART trains in 170 locations, features Olympic Gold Medalist and Grand Slam Champion, Ken Flach. Since his death last March, his widow, Christina, has dedicated her life to sharing information about sepsis in order to prevent further death from the disease that took Ken’s life.

“Ken was a strong, healthy athlete who took great care in how he treated his body. None of that mattered to sepsis. Sepsis doesn’t care if you fill up on kale, participate in road races on the weekend, or meditate,” shared Christina. “Sepsis took my husband far too early, and what is so frustrating is that it’s something we didn’t know about even though it kills more people than breast cancer, prostate cancer, lung cancer, and AIDS. If this awareness campaign helps prevent even one death, it will be worth all the efforts.”

Passengers on the Golden Gate Ferry can learn about 11-year-old Angelica Hale – the America’s Got Talent finalist who beat sepsis when she was four years old. The scary ordeal led Hale to coordinate efforts with Sepsis Alliance in order to bring attention to the organization’s It’s About TIME™ initiative, which highlights the necessity of seeking urgent treatment when dealing with the disease that takes a life every two minutes.

The third poster, which also appears on Golden Gate Ferry ships, educates with an infographic that explains the symptoms and statistics of sepsis, and offers actionable tips to ensure the public knows to seek treatment for sepsis with urgency, before suffering permanent bodily harm or death.

All three posters invite the viewer to seek supplementary information and increase their sepsis knowledge at sepsis.org/quiz/bay-area. When they follow the link, they can quiz themselves with ten questions – each conveying important information that helps the taker learn and remember the signs and statistics that could save their own life, or the life of a loved one someday.

Jill Kogan Blake, sepsis survivor, advocate, and Sepsis Hero 2018 for Sepsis Alliance, raised the funds for this campaign last summer at the 2nd Annual Swim for Sepsis Awareness and the Inaugural Ken Flach Memorial Tennis Calcutta at the Club at Harbor Point in Mill Valley, CA with the assistance and genius of the Kaliski family.

“I am a crusader, a sepsis warrior, because I came so close to death from a disease that I had never even heard of. I designed this campaign with the deliberate intent of saving lives and limbs and reducing suffering by spreading awareness of sepsis in the Bay Area. Please help us do this.”