Fatal sequence: The killer within

Abstract

Severe sepsis, a critical illness that most often afflicts victims of initially nonfatal illnesses or injuries, is the third-most-common killer in the United States. In Fatal Sequence, neurosurgeon, immunologist, and clinical investigator Kevin J. Tracey offers a chronicle both scientific and human, using cases he personally experienced to illustrate the clinical nightmare of organ failure that typifies the disease. In clear, accessible language, Tracey explains how the brain, which normally restrains the immune system and protects the patient, can fail during severe sepsis—allowing the immune system to indiscriminately kill normal cells along with foreign microbes. Fatal Sequence is a compelling documentation of an all-too-common situation: doctors fighting to prevent patients’ deaths at the hands of complications from injuries and illnesses that should never be fatal in the first place.