George's story at Sheffield Children's - recognising and treating sepsis - video Dailymotion

The Star, Sheffield

George's story at Sheffield Children's - recognising and treating sepsis

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00:00George is your typical two-year-old boy, fun, cheeky and full of life and he can

00:12eat for England. George loves animals and in particular loves my mum's dog Bob. I

00:21was actually at work on Friday afternoon and my mum sent me a video of George

00:27walking Bob on his lead. I think as a parent you just know that something's

00:34not quite right. On the Saturday morning he'd had his breakfast as normal and

00:40he'd eaten that but he was a little bit clingy and had a bit of a temperature so

00:45I gave him some Calpon to bring his temperature down but it never came down

00:50it started to creep up. So we went to the walking centre and George was seen

00:57by a doctor but because he started being sick we went to the emergency department.

01:03I thought he had norovirus because he started with really bad sickness and

01:10diarrhoea whilst we were there. So when we got to the emergency department

01:16because we'd already seen a doctor we were automatically sent to AAU where he

01:23was observed by a nurse. George was sleeping and seemed quite lifeless. An

01:31hour went by he started to go grey and his eyes seemed really sunken in and the

01:39nurse came over to me to ask about his colouring and whether or not that was

01:45his usual colour and then she quickly picked up that he had developed a rash

01:50on his chest. It was that small that I'd not seen it and I'd not noticed it.

01:59Things started to deteriorate really quickly. His heart rate started to go

02:06really really high and his blood pressure was getting lower and lower and

02:13he needed oxygen. I think what I found really hard to believe was yesterday

02:20he was walking my mum's dog to eating his breakfast this morning and then we

02:27were here.

02:43Sex is your body's response to an infection where it damages its own

02:48tissues and organs. It is a serious life-threatening condition but it is

02:52rare in children. George was on a ventilator for six days and spent three

03:02days on HDU. We have never been in this environment before and to be put on to

03:12intensive care, it's a whole new world and something that is petrifying for

03:20parents. The team at Sheffield Children's was absolutely unbelievable. I think

03:31because of their communication, how calm and composed they were and how they

03:38looked after us as parents. And then they came to us and said that George was

03:48well enough to make his recovery on Ward 2. I met George and his family down on

03:58Ward 2 during his recovery. They're a lovely family. A huge amount of the

04:03credit has to go to the wards that cared for him and looked after him so well.

04:07It's important to recognize sepsis early because the faster we spot the

04:11signs and symptoms, the easier it is to treat. Every single person that looked

04:19after him, cared for him, they are nothing short of miracle workers and honestly we

04:28cannot thank them enough. They saved George's life.

04:38They just repeatedly said to me, you have got him in at exactly the right time. If I

04:49hadn't have got him in when I did, the picture would have been very, very

04:53different. At Sheffield Children's we're trying to improve patient safety. We're

05:01doing this by educating staff on the signs and symptoms to look out for, how

05:06to escalate these concerns effectively and how to treat within the appropriate

05:10time frame. If you want to know more about sepsis you can visit the NHS

05:17website or the Sepsis Trust which gives advice on symptoms and where to seek

05:21help.

George's story at Sheffield Children's - recognising and treating sepsis

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