George’s story: how spotting the signs of sepsis saved his life

“Sometimes you just know as a parent that something is not right.”

This cheeky little chap is George. He’s 2-years-old and looking at him now you might never believe his recent ordeal.

His mum, Becky said: “George could eat for England. He was a bit clingy that Saturday morning but had his normal appetite and he was fine all week. I even have a video of him from the Friday afternoon where he’s walking the dog with his Nanna.”

However, Becky was being cautious with George after a recent case of chicken pox, and something about his sudden high temperature worried her.

“I couldn’t get his temperature down so we went to a walk-in centre in Sheffield. While there George vomited so they said we should go to Sheffield Children’s Emergency Department, and he was seen on the Acute Assessment Unit at Sheffield Children’s Hospital.

“I thought it was norovirus at first. If you had asked me what a sepsis rash looked like I would have had no idea. He went from eating breakfast in the morning to being ventilated in the evening. I didn’t know how quickly sepsis could take hold. We started to live every parent’s worst nightmare.”

Sepsis is a life-threatening reaction to an infection. It happens when your immune system overreacts to an infection and starts to damage your body’s own tissues and organs. You can’t catch it from someone else, but it can be very difficult to spot, especially in young children like George.

Becky explained: “The doctors and nurses on Acute Assessment Unit at Sheffield Children’s Hospital were amazing. One in particular spotted the rash and cannulated him straight away and then everything happened so quickly. When I asked what they were treating him for they said ‘sepsis, but that is the worst-case scenario.’”

As sepsis can cause rapid deterioration, it was very important that staff react quickly and George was soon moved to the Intensive Care Unit (ICU).

Becky added: “The ICU were incredible. They had an advanced nurse practitioner who decided quickly what was needed and handled everything so calmly. The whole team were the perfect balance of keeping me informed but not causing me to panic. I think I would have been in a far worse state if I hadn’t been reassured by how they approached everything. The communication was unbelievable – every consultant, every nurse, every doctor was amazing.”

Sepsis at Sheffield Children’s

In January 2024, Sheffield Children’s created a new post to support patients, families and staff to detect and treat cases of sepsis as quickly and effectively as possible.

Emma Nicholson was appointed as Sheffield Children’s Lead Sepsis Nurse after this was identified as one of a number of actions taken in learning lessons following an inquest last year into the tragic death of 16-month-old James Philliskirk.

Emma said: “My role focuses on education and training on recognising sepsis, empowering staff to escalate concerns in a timely way , and the importance of the Sepsis Six – which is a set of six interventions which must be carried out within one hour by healthcare staff when sepsis is recognised.

“It also includes education on the importance of listening to parents’ and carers’ concerns and advocating for these. We have introduced a standardised process to help families to escalate their concerns.”

The Lead Sepsis Nurse role is one of a number of steps that Sheffield Children’s is taking to develop sepsis care with the aim of improving safety, quality of care and the experience of children and families.

Emma added: “We want to provide healthcare professionals with the knowledge and skills to be able to recognise the signs early, escalate accordingly and implement treatment in a timely manner.

“We have also been assessing how we’ve managed sepsis in children in the past and are continuously looking for aspects to improve on.”

As part of her role, Emma visited George and his mum after his recovery to hear his story in their own words and see if anything could be learned from their experiences.

George’s recovery

George spent a week on a ventilator on the ICU but as he recovered he was able to leave the ICU and moved to Ward 2 for rehabilitation, where he spent another week under the care of the Plastic Surgery Team. They still look after George as an outpatient, because his circulation was so poor when he was unwell that he lost a fingertip.

Becky said: “It’s strange. In a way he’s so unlucky that this happened to him – it’s not very common – but he’s so lucky that he was being looked after by these staff. They said to me that if I had brought him in just a bit later then the picture could have been very different.

“The level of care and compassion from every member of staff on Sheffield Children’s Critical Care Unit has been outstanding.

“We know it’s going to be a bit of a journey with a few bumps along the way, but our boy is still here and for that we will be forever and ever grateful. He is nothing short of a miracle.”

Thank you to Becky and George for sharing their story. We are so glad to see him on the mend.

 If you’re worried about sepsis

If you have any concerns about your child, seek medical attention from a healthcare professional, and just ask ‘could it be sepsis’. The following places are trusted sources of information:

Symptoms of sepsis – NHS (www.nhs.uk) 
About Sepsis | Sepsis Symptoms | The UK Sepsis Trust