Sepsis warriors march on...

Trio due to take their fight to the Dáil next week

The Sepsis Warriors placed first in the Bailieborough St Patrick’s Day parade for their float to raise awareness on the life-threatening emergency.

Spearheaded by Hannah Tormey, Catriona Cahill and Sinead O’Reilly, the float comprised children and adults from all walks of life - some dressed as babies, gym goers and body builders, nurses, doctors, farmers, nuns, among them, to show that anybody at any stage in life can get sepsis (scroll down below for signs).

Sepsis is not an infection; it is an inflammatory reaction to an infection that is already in the body. Sinead, who is a nurse, said sepsis does not discriminate who it affects.

“Anybody can get an infection and you can get an infection anywhere, be it a chest infection, a cut on your knee.

“Babies can get it, pregnant mothers can get it, anybody can get it. Sepsis is the body’s inflammatory reaction to this infection where it just goes into multi-organ failure.”

Each woman and their family have been affected by sepsis, and the trio are determined to spread awareness through the Sepsis Support and Awareness Group in Virginia run by Catriona. They are also visiting Leinster House next month in the hope of changing policy to allow new diagnostic machines to be installed in more Irish hospitals, which would detect bacteria and its type and the level of it within your blood within 45 minutes. By comparison, blood cultures could take 48-72 hours to come back. The machine is currently in two hospitals in Ireland. Sinead said it would also determine the most appropriate antibiotic treatment.

“We have to get policy changed in order for this to be part of the policy.”

The Anglo-Celt met with the three Sepsis Warriors, each of whom shared their experience with sepsis in an effort to spread awareness.

For Blackrock Clinic nurse, Sinead O’Reilly, her niece and nephew were left without a mother at 22 weeks of age after sepsis took her sister in law’s life on October 16, 2022.

The late Sarah O’Reilly was just 34 years’ old when she passed away in Beaumont Hospital, not long after giving birth to twin IVF babies, Lilly and PJ, who will turn three in May. Both children walked in the parade with their father Patrick. “She was the best mammy,” Sinead recalled.

“Even the dog had a coat saying ‘I’m going to be a big sister’,” she said, reminiscing on times when Sarah was expecting.

Sarah had also joined the Virginia Breastfeeding Support Group, loved arts and crafts and, as an aunt, she had Sinead’s children “spoiled rotten”.

“She’d be the auntie who would bring all the games and be playing with them all the time. She was totally, totally child orientated.

“It was just an awful devastation and he [Patrick] was left with two babies on his own. They weren’t in their house one year, they’d only just bought a house, moved back to Bailieborough.”

Sinead explained how her brother’s entire family had all tested positive for Covid at the time Sarah became ill and had been undergoing their two-week isolation.

“No one had been out,” Sinead explained.

Sinead, who was working in Cavan General Hospital at the time as a Clinical Nurse Specialist for Tissue Viability, received a phone call from her sister-in-law to say that she wasn’t well. Noting that there is a “high incidence” of gallstones post pregnancy, upon hearing Sarah’s symptoms Sinead suspected this was the case and advised her to go to the hospital, which she did. At the time due to restrictions, people attending the A&E department had to do so alone, however Sinead stayed in contact over the phone. After a while, she thought that Sarah was “making no sense”.

“She nearly couldn’t talk to me,” Sinead recalled. She rang the hospital who said she had pancreatitis.

That night the family received a call to say that Sarah had been moved to ICU.

“I went down first thing in the morning and she was in an awful state at that stage.”

Sarah was transferred to Beaumont Hospital due to multi-organ failure.

Her sister-in-law “really deteriorated” in the ambulance, to the point that she had to be intubated. Sinead went to the hospital with her cousin, when they were brought into an office and told news that no family ever wants to hear.

“She’s dying, she won’t survive this,” they were told.

“It was just a total shock.”

Her husband, whom she had been married to for almost eight years, came up to be with her.

“They just said it was a matter of time; you need a miracle.”

The next morning, Sarah had her eyes open and was waving at her family. She couldn’t speak as she was intubated, but was mouthing ‘what happened?’.

Her mother, father and brother from Germany had also made the journey over at this stage. Sinead said she had a “good enough” week in the hospital, “still very, very sick but stable.”

“After the first week she just deteriorated, she got every infection going and she died literally 11 weeks’ later [after first presenting to the hospital].”

Upon reviewing Sarah’s medical notes from when she first presented, the family have raised concerns over the response from Cavan General Hospital. There is an ongoing legal case and an inquest into her death has yet to take place.

Having read the notes, Sinead says Sarah had signs of sepsis when she first attended the hospital.

According to Sinead, Sarah had one gallstone, which blocked up her bile duct and backed up her pancreas, ultimately causing her multi-organ failure.

The family received a review from Cavan General Hospital but Sarah’s loved ones still have questions. They believe, had sepsis been identified sooner and appropriate treatment given, Sarah would still be alive.

Sinead acknowledged the “mandatory” course throughout the HSE on sepsis but said some staff are so busy they aren’t recognising sepsis or querying it in time.

“Forget about the healthcare professionals, it’s not working. If we educate the people that these are the signs and that you could ask [is it sepsis?]”.

Sinead said that sepsis is a preventable illness. However it’s “time sensitive” and is “not being identified.”

As a healthcare professional she said: “If we knew how sick you were we’d drop all, we’d go without our food, we would go without going to the toilet, we do it every day as staff nurses. That’s just the way we’re trained and that just the way you work, you prioritise the sickest. You can blame maybe that things are so busy you don’t have time to think properly. It’s chaotic.”

Now a board member of the Irish Sepsis Foundation, Sinead and the rest of the group are determined to spread Sepsis awareness. They are doing talks locally and are willing to call out to any community group or school to speak. If you are interested, you can contact Catriona on 086-1980692.

The next meeting of the Sepsis Support and Awareness Group in Virginia will take place on April 24.

KNOW THE SIGNS OF SEPSIS AND ACT FAST!

If you are feeling unwell, ask yourself, could it be sepsis? Sepsis can hide behind any infection at any age. Don’t miss the signs. One in every five deaths worldwide is associated with sepsis. Acting quickly can save lives from sepsis.

- Slurred speech or confusion

- Extreme shivering, muscle pain or fever

- Passing no urine

- Severe breathlessness

- It feels like you are going to die

- Skin mottled or discoloured

When it comes to sepsis, REMEMBER:

‘It’s about TIME’. Watch for:

- Temperature higher or lower than usual

- Infection - may have signs or symptoms of infection

- Mental decline - confused, sleepy, difficult to rouse

- Extremely ill - ‘I feel like I might die’, severe pain or discomfort

Risk Groups

Everybody can get sepsis, however certain people are at higher risk including:

- People with chronic diseases, for example lung, liver and heart.

- Children under one.

- People with no spleen.

- Adults over 60 years.

- People with weakened immune systems for example those with AIDS or diabetes.