Brush with deadly sepsis

Sir — I felt goosebumps invade my body as I came upon the very informative and much-needed article concerning the condition of sepsis by Alan O’Keeffe (Sunday Independent, February 3).

Suddenly it was 2013 again, and my sister had given birth just a week earlier to a beautiful, healthy baby — a little boy who joined his overjoyed brother and sister.

However, as we basked in the elation that a new baby brings to the family, we were blissfully unaware that my sister had developed sepsis.

A few days after the birth, she became seriously ill at home.

Indeed her deterioration was so rapid that her husband decided to drive her to hospital himself rather than wait for an ambulance.

Once she got to hospital, she was diagnosed with sepsis, told that her organs were failing, and given immediate treatment with antibiotics.

In my opinion, only the efficiency and promptness of her husband and the hospital staff saved her life — and so it is that I type this email today as a happy, grateful, and still relieved aunt — rather than a makeshift mother of three children. I say makeshift because I think it’s universally acknowledged that once lost, a mother can never be replaced.

For the benefit of anybody who may be interested, I would like to add, that along with the symptoms of sepsis mentioned in your article, my sister was also affected by an ice-cold feeling all over the body; cramps in the stomach and back; shivering and trembling; and loud and fast thumping of the heart.

Jennifer Thompson (Miss), Convent Hill, Waterford city