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Jessica, shares the story of her son, Ryan, and his journey encountering paediatric sepsis.
Ryan was happy healthy little boy who just turned one years old, when he started coming down with flu like symptoms in December 2022. His symptoms deteriorated and he became very lethargic and not wanting to walk. We brought him to our local emergency department twice, as his condition worsened he was flown out to our nearest major hospital. On arrival we were told that Ryan was in severe septic shock and unfortunately he went into cardiac arrest. CPR was performed for 10 minutes. We were told our little boy wasn’t going to make it.
Magically Ryan came back to us and it was confirmed that he had Strep A which had progressed to septic shock.
Ryan had many factors against him collapsed lung, multiple dialysis treatments, vocal cord damage, minor brain damage and unfortunately due to everything Ryan had two major surgeries to amputate both of his lower legs and amputate some fingers and all fingertips.
We have long journey ahead but know we can get through it with all the love support around us.
On 18 May, Chris and a small team of friends are heading to the NT to trek the entire length of the Larapinta Trail, a remarkable 223km desert challenge to raise funds and awareness for the prevention of Sepsis in Australia.
Chris, as someone who has been touched by Sepsis, your contributions will make a difference for a cause that’s very close to our hearts. Please support Chris and the teams efforts by making a secure online donation and by posting a message of support.
Donations can be securely made through Go Fundraise and will be remitted directly through to Sepsis Australia. Thanks so much for your support!
Following is the story of Chris’s encounter with Sepsis.
Despite the onset of COVID, during 2021 I decided with my brother and two mates to trek to Everest Base Camp, in October 2022. We commenced preparations, researching what would be involved, selecting a trekking company, buying necessary clothing and equipment, and of course, training.
Most of our training was urban walking, bush walking and some time in the gym. By early in 2022 we were getting fit and we felt that the trek was definitely on. In March we trained in the Snowy Mountains with some hard hikes.
Things were going well, but then disaster struck. I had returned to Sydney with a small, infected insect bite on my right instep. A couple of days later, on the Thursday my left shoulder started to pain, I thought I’d torn a rotater cuff, again! Otherwise, I felt generally unwell, so I cancelled my Friday Pilates and Saturday golf. It would be months before these activities would be doable again.
By Sunday my right hip was following the pattern of the left shoulder. Kathy, my wife, drove me to Royal North Shore Hospital late Sunday afternoon by which time I was in agony and couldn’t walk unaided. The ED’s wheelchair was my saviour, and it became my refuge for the following hours, movement was so painful I couldn’t be extracted from it. My demands to be put into a coma were refused, the morphine was doubled instead. This was so I could report on the source and intensity of the pain. Symptoms were confusing, no fever, and pain moving between joints. By midnight I was admitted to hospital, which would be home for the next three weeks.
The doctors and nurses at RNS were fantastic dealing with my issues. Diagnosing my strange set of symptoms and treating my various ailments. Golden staph, septic arthritis, acute kidney failure, delirium, surgery to wash away the infection from various joints, getting me walking again, and so on. At this stage I doubted that I would make a full recovery, let alone trek to Everest Base Camp. The doctors were more confident!
After discharge from hospital the treatment continued for months with intravenous antibiotics, drains from the surgical wounds, physiotherapy etc. This was mainly administered by APAC, hospital in the home, with many nurse visits to our house and regular testing and follow up at RNS. They were fantastic too.
You can imagine that various plans and commitments had to be managed. Firstly, our younger daughter Jessica was married a few weeks after my hospital discharge. On the north coast of NSW! With a lot of help from APAC, a Tweed hospital visit and self-administration of intravenous antibiotics, the wedding went off beautifully for all.
What about the big trek? It was clear that I wouldn’t be ready by October even though I was recovering. As it turned out it could not go ahead in 2022 at all, because of the COVID country lock downs. Nepal was completely closed.
In the meantime, my recovery slowly progressed, but I was a skinny version of my former self. I had lost 7 or 8kg, but by May the walking stick went back in the corner. The recuperation was under way, starting with some short urban walks. During June I made a tentative return to the golf course after a three-month absence. By July I was confident that I would recover properly and in full. My training regime recommenced with longer and longer walks, and I was back in the Pilates studio.
Our team committed to put our Everest Base Camp trek in the diary for March/April 2023. It’s now history that we all successfully completed that challenge as planned. We were all pleased with ourselves, and I feel it was a great achievement for a 71 year old, given all that had happened.
We’ve decided that we need a new challenge! So in May 2024 we plan to walk the Larapinta Track, end to end. Given my experience with Sepsis and my new awareness of this terrible condition, I have asked my trekking mates, and they have agreed, to use this adventure to raise some funds for Sepsis Australia.
So, we will tackle the Northern Territory desert for greater Sepsis awareness. The team is myself, my brother Richard Raine, my golfing mates Bill Bundey and Malcolm Boyd, Warren and Debbie McDonough (all from the Everest trek), plus Danny and Evelyn Player.
My beautiful husband, Andrew was 58. We had been together for almost 39 years and married for 37. We have 3 wonderful children and 3 gorgeous grand babies who loved him “to the moon and back” as our eldest grand baby Tom says.
Our lives began to change in March 2023 when Andrew began getting numbness in his leg and pins and needles in his hands. Initially we thought it may have been a symptom of his rheumatoid arthritis which he was diagnosed with 10 years earlier. After seeing our GP and his rheumatologist, investigations began, we found that his upper spine was impacting his spinal cord in his neck. He was sent to a Neurosurgeon who recommended that he have an operation. It wouldn’t “fix” the problem but it would slow down and hopefully stop the degeneration of his spinal cord.
Andrew had the operation on 20/7/23 and a spinal fusion was performed. The operation went well and he was allowed to go home next day. The symptoms and pain that he had been experiencing were improved within days. He seemed so well!
However he began taking his pain killers again at about 3 1/2 weeks post operation, we thought it was to due to his rheumatoid arthritis and so we weren’t overly worried. The thought of sepsis never entered our minds. He didn’t have to see the neurosurgeon again until October.
Life was good. Until Tuesday night 22/8 Andrew began vomiting. He told me earlier that he had a little rash on his inner thigh and on his leg. When I looked, I couldn’t see a rash.
Wednesday 23/8 I bought him some anti nausea medicine. He seemed to get better and ate some toast although he didn’t drink very much. He was still taking the pain meds but more often. I told him we should go to the Dr but he wouldn’t because he didn’t want to sit around in a Dr surgery. He could be stubborn.
Thinking he had a bug, Andrew slept in the lounge room that night so he wouldn’t give me his bug. He wasn’t vomiting at this stage but was lethargic.
Early Thursday morning 24/8, the day he was due to return to work after his operation, he came into the bedroom and said “you better call me an ambulance, I don’t feel at all well.”
The ambulance came, the paramedics weren’t overly concerned but took him to Katoomba hospital to be checked over as a precaution.
Initially the hospital did observations and were a little confused by his symptoms.
He was dehydrated because of his stomach bug, his blood pressure was low, he couldn’t pass urine and he had a rash on his ankle. The staff weren’t concerned about the rash though. Things rapidly became more intense. Due to his dehydration they pushed fluids and antibiotics through him. They moved Andrew into a bigger cubicle and asked me to wait outside. The Dr was putting lines in “just in case” and a catheter was put in.
I remember sitting there and hearing the staff discussing a helicopter. I asked a nurse what was happening but they kept saying a Dr will be out to explain what’s happening to you. They kept saying “he’s very sick and he’s way too young” however they never mentioned sepsis to me at any stage.
Just after 1:00 pm they airlifted Andrew to Nepean ICU, a bigger hospital 9 minutes away by air with more resources. I walked with the Air ambulance team as they wheeled him to the helicopter. The air ambulance Dr asked me if Andrew had ever had a kidney complaint. Andrew had kidney stones years before. He said that that’s what he thought it was. I watched as the Helicopter took off and then followed in the car, dropping in at home to get a bag as Andrew would need some bits and pieces. My kids asked me if they should come down and see their dad. I said it’s been a big day, come down tomorrow, thinking it was a kidney stone problem.
When I arrived at Nepean Hospital Andrew was so uncomfortable with pain, he couldn’t keep still, he couldn’t urinate and he was confused. His eyes were extremely bloodshot. He was on strong pain medication but it didn’t seem to be making a lot of difference. The rash on his ankle had become raised and purple. When a Dr came to see Andrew I pointed out his ankle and showed him a photo of it from earlier that day. I was told it was unrelated, even though it had obviously changed significantly during the day. I was told that Andrew had “an infection.”
I went home and rang at 10pm. The staff told me he was trying to sleep. I asked them to tell him I love him.
At 2am Friday 25/8 I got a call telling me that Andrew’s organs had shut down, that they did CPR but they got him back. My daughter and I jumped in the car and sped down to Nepean Hospital. A 40 minute drive away.
The Dr met us at the door to ICU and told us that our beloved husband and father passed at 2:36am. I wasn’t there. I can’t forgive myself for that.
My daughter rang my sons who rushed down to see their dad to say goodbye. A Dr came into the room to try to explain what had happened and to be honest I can’t tell you what he said. We were all in shock.
The police were called because it was a sudden death, I felt like a criminal as they waited outside the door, discussing what had to happen next. After we said goodbye, Andrew was transported to the Coroner’s office.
The official reason on Andrew’s Death Certificate is Group A streptococcus /septicaemia, his immune system was compromised due to his rheumatoid arthritis his body couldn’t fight the infection.
Our family has always believed in helping others. Andrews Cause – Sepsis Awareness is our way of raising funds and awareness of Sepsis. Our aim is to stop another family’s world from being shattered like ours was simply by asking.
“Could it be Sepsis”
Andrew’s loving wife and children, Sandra, Ashleigh, John and Matthew, are hosting two fundraising and sepsis awareness events this year through the Facebook group Andrew’s Cause – Sepsis Awareness. If you’re in the Lawson, NSW area you can support Sandra and John by attending their Barefoot Bowls and Trivia Night. Andrew’s Cause – Sepsis Awareness is an incredible way to honour Andrew’s memory and we are so very grateful to Sandra and John for all their hard work.
I am an eleven-year leukaemia survivor with an important story to tell connected to surviving sepsis.
In 2022 I self-published my story ‘LIFE BLOOD: Lessons from one woman who survived serious illness against the odds’, available as a paperback, hardcover and e-book across all book retailers globally. My moving, unflinchingly honest and often humorous recollections and reflections chart my experience from a shock diagnosis of Acute Myeloid Leukaemia at age 59 to cure and beyond. I take the reader along with me through a cancer experience from a patient’s point of view.
A donor stem cell transplant saved my life and the Alfred Hospital’s brilliant doctors and nurses also played a vital role in me still being here. I had two rounds of gruelling chemotherapy. I went into remission, however right after the second round I developed a fever. An E.coli bug had brought on sepsis. I came close to death as many of my organs began to fail. I was incredibly fortunate this happened at the Alfred as help was immediately at hand. I went straight downstairs to ICU and was placed in an induced coma for a week. As I came back into consciousness I had the weirdest hallucinations which I can still recall in detail.
My husband Fred wrote many emails to family and friends during my three weeks recovering from sepsis in the ICU. The experience is detailed in my book. I turned sixty in hospital and felt totally debilitated. I had to learn how to walk again at the Caulfield rehabilitation hospital.
I have discussed sepsis in detail in my book and included a selection of Fred’s emails. The ones he sent when he thought I might die are especially moving. I commenced writing during my long recovery from AML.
Some years ago Fred also had an encounter with sepsis. The day after a prostate biopsy he began to feel seriously ill. He recalled reading in the post-procedure notes that any signs of illness should immediately be investigated. Fortunately he made a quick recovery following two days of hospitalisation and intravenous antibiotics.
Website: www.cathykoningwriter.com
Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/cathykoningwriter/
On Sunday the 4th of September 2022, after an induced labour, I gave birth to my daughter with forceps assistance and having an episiotomy to minimise tearing.
Around 4 hours after the birth I began having increasingly intense pain which the doctor diagnosed as internal bleeding and told me I would have to go in for surgery.
I was placed under general anaesthetic and a 600ml Haematoma was drained. The doctors informed me after the surgery that the bleeding was due to a blood vessel that had been stitched up after the episiotomy.
In the days following the surgery I began developing symptoms of sepsis including fever, inability to urinate, low blood pressure, fast heart rate and pain. The significance of these symptoms was not recognised and nobody asked “could it be sepsis?”
Despite my symptoms and having several risk factors for sepsis (gestational diabetes, epidural, surgery) I was discharged on the Friday afternoon. By 6pm the same day I was feeling very unwell, had a massive bleed and returned to the hospital. An ultrasound showed that I had over 700ml of urine retained in my bladder and I was asked to stay in overnight.
On Saturday morning my symptoms had worsened. I was told that I had a normal temperature and that the chills and other symptoms were due to my milk coming in. I asked the nurse to please test my temperature in a different area or on a different machine, as I was sure that I had a temperature. When I was retested I had a temperature of 39.4. The doctor told me that I had sepsis and that I would need to begin IV antibiotics immediately. After a total of 5 days in hospital on IV antibiotics I was sent home with my newborn baby and a 10 day course of oral antibiotics.
The swabs that were taken to find the source of infection all came back negative so the cause of sepsis could not be determined. On discharge from the hospital I was extremely anxious which culminated in my developing PTSD. In the year that has followed I have managed to overcome my PTSD by having Trauma therapy and am now able to focus my time on bonding with my baby.
My experience shows that sepsis is very insidious and can present in many ways which often causes confusion and late recognition. Public awareness and health professional education are key to its prevention.
So, remember just ask “could it be sepsis?”
“Tarryn Bunworth, is determined to make sure people know about the life-threatening yet “forgotten about” condition, sepsis.”
After her Mother, Tracey, tragically died from sepsis in July, Tarryn is raising awareness and funds to help prevent sepsis.
Read more about Tracey and Tarryn here
Four years ago, Mick O’Dowd thought he would never be able to do much again. In the aftermath of a devastating illness (sepsis) he could only hope to have the kind of freedom most people take for granted.
It was 2018 and the whole family was there for a hectic, noisy, happy Christmas Day. While he was manning the barbecue, Mick began to feel “really hot and uncomfortable”. As the afternoon wore on things became worse and worse. By that night, Mick was leaning against a brick wall at Canterbury Hospital emergency, “just trying to breathe through the pain”, while he waited to see a doctor. He was diagnosed with sciatica and sent home at 7:00am on Boxing Day. But a deadly infection was racing through his body. Back at hospital later that day, things got very serious, very fast. Mick’s blood pressure was low, his heart rate was high, his breathing shallow. He felt as if he was dying, and he was right. On life support he had a 20 per cent chance of making it to the morning.
Read more about Mick and his family’s incredible strength in prevailing over sepsis Mick’s story 4 years on
Watch Australian Story “A matter of minutes” on ABC iView A matter of minutes
It was Friday 26th August 2022. A day I remember as it was my mum’s birthday but also the day that things in my life took a turn. I started my day with my usual ‘Tone’ class at the gym. I was 43, healthy and fit. As I was in the shower getting ready for my day I got a sudden, stabbing pain in my back on the left hand side which intensified to the point that I fell to the shower floor in agony. I slowly crawled my way out of the shower along my bedroom floor hoping it would go away but it didn’t. I started screaming for my husband who was downstairs in the kitchen. My screams didn’t get his attention so I started thumping on the walls yelling out his name so he could come help me. Eventually he came and saw me in disbelief. I immediately said to him that we needed to go to the hospital. Thankfully we only live around the corner from a major hospital.
I don’t remember too much of the next two days as my body must have been in extreme pain and the trauma of the event effected my memory. I have however managed to pull together most of it from questioning my family. As I arrived at the ED entrance I could barely walk in. I was triaged by the nurse and at some point taken to a bed. I recall rolling around in the bed in agony watching the nurses flinch every time I screamed as they prepared the morphine. We spent several hours at the hospital. I was administered several dosages of morphine throughout my time there and given anti-nausea tablets as I vomited several times. I had a CT scan which showed I had a 4mm kidney stone. Later that evening I was discharged with pain and anti-nausea medication. We were told due to the size of the stone it should pass on its own. What we didn’t know was that was never going to occur and that evening was the beginning of almost the end for me.
I started to deteriorate quickly throughout the night and the following day. What we didn’t know was that I had sepsis already and my body was going into Septic Shock. The stone had blocked my ureter which meant my kidney wasn’t passing urine and was quickly getting infected. My husband continued to medicate me however the pain relief was not working. I started to vomit and did move out of bed. My daughter recalls walking in on me shivering and my teeth chattering as they tried to comfort me with heat bags and her Oodie. My husband called ED and was transferred to a health line who provided general advice on kidney stones.
Later that evening he took me back to hospital. I was in a critical state. I remember turning up to ED and vomiting profusely outside their entry doors. I was sat in a wheelchair and was quickly seen by a triage nurse. I recall placing my head on his desk moaning in pain. My blood pressure was incredibly low and my heart rate was incredibly high. Much of what happened afterwards was a blur. I remember lying in bed and a team of doctors standing at the edge of my bed. One doctor introduced himself to me and told me he had been called in to conduct a emergency operation on me. I would be required to stay in ICU for a few days then the ward for another few. I was taken into another room where I was prepared for surgery and told to say goodbye to my husband. I have never been so scared and physically ill in my life. I could hear the operating theatre being prepared and felt like I couldn’t breathe. My heart was racing to the point I thought I was going to have a heart attack. The anaesthetist kept monitoring my blood pressure as it was getting lower and lower the longer we waited. I remember being hurried into the operating theatre. It felt so, so cold. I was terrified. I fought the oxygen mask as I was terrified of what was about to happen and then moved onto the operating bed.
I was told that when they went into my kidney it was infected and full of puss, a lot worse than they had imagined. A 24cm ureter stent was inserted but the stone was left in. When I questioned doctors about this later they advised if they had removed the stone they would have killed me on the operating table. My surgeon said to me that he has never seen a case like mine. My body was like an atomic bomb that just went off and I got sick very, very quick. The words “very, very sick’ were used by every doctor and every nurse that looked after me during my two week stay in hospital.
I spent 7 days in ICU fighting my for life. I was intubated and was sedated following the surgery as I suffered multi organ failure and ICU spent the following day resuscitating my organs. Once awake I recall feeling extremely scared, lost, confused and a complete loss of dignity. I recall having difficulty breathing as my lungs had coped a beating and had fluid. ICU was terrible. As I started to improve I was moved onto a ward where I was faced with some of the biggest challenges of them all. I remember my beautiful nurse Michelle peeling back the curtains the first morning on the ward telling me she was going to make me feel nice by getting me out of bed and giving me my first shower. Little did I know this was going to be one of the hardest things I would do in my life. I remember placing my two feet on the ground and having no sense of balance or strength. I could barely lift my head. I was hunched over in a little ball as I had lost all muscle control. I was wheeled into the shower where I started crying and as I held onto the rail thinking how the hell was I ever going to get over this. Each day afterwards we would set a new goal. I would need to learn to shower on my own, feed myself and spend time in the chair to gain my strength. Showering itself would take a huge physical toll and I would have to sleep afterwards.
I was discharged in a very weak state. I was actually horrified that I was allowed to go home. I didn’t want to go home although I had 3 beautiful daughters. I didn’t want to face my home as it brought back memories. I remember my husband picking me up early Wednesday morning and being wheelchaired down to the hospitals front entrance. Everything seemed so strange like I didn’t belong. I had to spend the next 2 weeks at my parents house where they looked after me as it was too much for my husband with the kids and our house had a lot of stairs which were too difficult for me to use. I eventually went home on Thursday 22nd September, 4 weeks since I arrived at ED. I felt strange in my own house. I couldn’t and still don’t sleep on my side of the bed or shower with the door closed!
Although I was finally home it wasn’t the end for me. I still needed to have the stone and stent removed. I was anxious and scared and cranky that I had to have another operation after all I had been through. On the Tuesday 27 September I went in for another procedure. I was terrified and felt like I was going to vomit, being in a hospital again was too soon since the sepsis ordeal!
It’s been 7 weeks since I was discharged from hospital for Septic Shock and looking back now I have improved tremendously. I’ve started seeing a psychologist to help deal with the trauma which has been great and I have started walking and slowly getting out. I do get frustrated as I’m not at the same level as I was before but hope over time this will improve. I have noticed my ability to focus and concentrate is much harder, my short-term memory is not as good and I get breathlessness over simple tasks however I am trying to remain positive and hope that I can get to where I was before. I still have a long road to recovery but I know one thing for sure. I’m appreciative of my family and friends who showed me constant love and support. I am forever grateful to my husband who not only had to endure the trauma of seeing me so sick but for never leaving my side. I don’t feel the same and hope I never do as I have a new profound appreciation for life. I listen to the birds, I literally stop to smell the flowers and love the warmth of the sun on my skin as I recall desperately wanting this whilst in hospital. I joined the sepsis network as I was desperately searching for answers. What I learnt is that sepsis can touch anyone in so many different ways. I received some great advice from sepsis survivors which didn’t make me feel so alone. If there is anything that I want more is that hospitals and their staff and the community are more educated on sepsis. Sepsis screening should be compulsory and form part of every hospital process.
Sam’s father used to kick the football with him in the backyard and ferry him and his younger sister, Eloise, to their swimming lessons. They went on camping trips together and spent afternoons playing at the park.
But five years ago, their lives dramatically changed. Their father, Neal Furze, fell ill on grand final day, while watching Richmond beat Adelaide, with what was later diagnosed as sepsis. His legs and all of his fingers were amputated. It saved his life.
Read more about Neal and his family’s story in the Sydney Morning Herald.