15/09/2020
It is sepsis awareness month.
YOU NEED TO BE SEPSIS AWARE!
Please SHARE to SAVE LIVES!
I wish every Australian to know about SEPSIS and how SNEAKY and SPEEDILY it KILLS.
SEPSIS KILLS more than 4 TIMES the number of people than road traffic accidents. Almost 9000 deaths/year. 55 000 people in Australia develop SEPSIS each year.
Amazingly, 40% of Australians haven't even heard of SEPSIS!
I have debated so much about sharing this photo of Mia on life support. It is shocking. It is distressing. It is difficult to share. It is very, very difficult to remember. I am extremely sorry to the friends we have made through sepsis that will find this difficult. However, I feel such a strong need to save others from going through what we have and I am hoping this will help.
On the evening of Sunday 15th October, 2017, Mia almost lost her life to Sepsis. Her organs were shutting down. Her heart stopped. I screamed out to Pete in ICU and we stood by helplessly watching the medical team pummel her chest to keep her with us. It was hell. It was a nightmare.
Mia was on life support for 6 days. She made it. But not all parts of Mia survived. Her hands and feet didn't receive blood supply. They darkened, gradually blackened and shriveled. How did this happen to our beautiful little 4 year old who was healthy just days ago? Our Mia is now a quad amputee.
Just 2 days prior, on Friday 13th October, near dinner time, Mia threw up and had a temperature. We put her to bed thinking she had gastro. The following morning Mia was sicker than we'd ever seen her so we took her to a GP. She couldn't stand from muscle pain and I wheeled her in a stroller. She was diagnosed with gastro and sent home to rest.
By Saturday afternoon Mia was incoherent and disorientated. Although her eyes were open, she wasn’t responding to our questions and was unable to focus on us. This was very scary so we took her straight to the hospital emergency department. Mia was complaining about severe pain stopping her from putting weight on her legs and again put in a stroller. She was diagnosed with Influenza and sent home to rest.
On Saturday evening we were still worried, and after carrying her to the toilet we were particularly concerned by how much pain Mia had in her legs. We called the hospital again hoping to speak to the doctors who had seen her, however we were transferred to an over-the phone medical service. After talking to the nurse, we were still worried but Mia hadn’t shown any new symptoms since her hospital visit. We checked on Mia every two hours that night, prodding her a little to verify she was still responsive with a plan that if we saw any sign of the incoherence or new symptoms we would take her back to hospital.
On Sunday morning, Mia didn’t seem any better, but she didn’t seem any worse either. We concluded that with the ’flu, Mia just needed rest so we set her up in front of the TV for a lazy day. We would go to check on her often and ask: “How are you doing Mia?” and each time she would respond: “I’m ok.”
When we checked on Mia late Sunday afternoon we noticed a light purple rash on her legs. I am forever thankful that Mia wasn't wearing long trousers, as I would have missed the rash and put her to bed. She shares a room with her older sister, Ellie, who would have found her dead the following morning.
When we saw the rash we immediately took Mia back to hospital. Upon arrival I was told our daughter was very very unwell and she deteriorated rapidly.
We are extremely fortunate that Mia is here with us and I am thankful beyond words. She is an amazing child. She is beautiful, cheeky, friendly, compassionate and clever. She has adapted extremely well to being a quad amputee over the last 3 years. She impresses us and everyone around her daily.
But, this could have been avoided had we known to ask "COULD THIS BE SEPSIS?" when we visited the GP and emergency department at hospital. It could have been avoided and treated easily had it been picked up earlier.
###xx
