Graham Segars (right) spoke about his experience with sepsis at the World Sepsis Congress in April.
Graham Segars became a sepsis survivor at the age of 21. He has now pledged to increase sepsis awareness across the United States.
Before the summer of 2024, Segars, a Wofford Collge environmental studies major from Columbia, had never heard of sepsis. That changed quickly in July.
It began when he felt a pop in his right hip. Segars was on break at his job at Chick- fil-A when, in a matter of hours, the small pop grew into intense discomfort then immobility. Segars went to the emergency room, and a nurse diagnosed him with a pulled muscle. After two weeks of no improvement, doctors ordered an MRI. They discovered arthritis and extracted hip tissue for testing. The results came back as septic arthritis, meaning an infection had spread to his inflamed joint. If left untreated it could lead to septic shock.
“They found traces of the infection, very minimal traces of it, in my entire bloodstream,” Segars said. “That’s why my situation was so severe.”
During surgery, doctors realized that sepsis had caused his body to eat away the cartilage around his hip. Recovery took months, and Segars didn’t return to campus until late September.
“As soon as I moved in, my friends helped me bring in all my stuff,” says Segars, who is particularly grateful for his Pi Kappa Alpha fraternity brothers. “They made sure that everything was all set up and made sure I had everything I needed. Hurricane Helene happened that same week, so I moved right in and moved right back out.”
Being on crutches and having limited mobility was an eye-opening experience for Segars, and he began partnering with organizations across the globe to raise awareness for people with disabilities and to end sepsis mortality. He spoke at the fifth-annual World Sepsis Congress, held virtually April 8 – 9, as the North American representative for the Global Sepsis Alliance. During his session, he gave his testimony of his experience with sepsis and provide insights on how to encourage advocacy through sepsis education.
“I’m in the category of people who have survived. A lot of people haven’t, and there’s not much support, advocacy or funding,” Segars says. “If there were more studies, maybe we could figure out a way to stop sepsis sooner.”
Wofford College, established in 1854, is a four-year, residential liberal arts college located in Spartanburg. It offers 27 major fields of study to a student body of 1,800 undergraduates.
