In the United States , sepsis is the leading cause of death for ICU patients which do not have heart problems . Data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows it is the tenth most common cause of death overall . In the United States , sepsis is the second-leading cause of death in non-coronary ICU patients , and the tenth-most-common cause of death overall according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention ( the first being heart disease ) .