When I was 28, I came unexpectedly, face to face with death. It was a profoundly clarifying experience.

I woke up one morning perfectly healthy, loving life, and certain I had a decades of living to look forward to. The very next day, my doctor texted me, “Mark, get to the E.R. immediately. Don’t delay for any reason. You could die at any moment!”

I’d contracted an infection in my bloodstream. It hit me out of the blue. One minute, I’m perfectly fine, having a nice breakfast with my wife, not even a sniffle – the next instant, I’m freezing, have a migraine, my lips have turned white, my temperature has shot up to 105.6, and I’m vomiting.

I’d gotten sepsis by brushing my teeth with new charcoal toothpaste. Until it was diagnosed, I didn’t know that’s what was causing me excruciating pain, I thought maybe I had horrible food poisoning. But the type of sepsis I had kills 1 out of 4 people in 48 hours. That’s worse odds of survival than playing Russian Roulette with a bullet in one of the six chambers.