NEWS: Dad Warns Parents About Sepsis After Losing His 3-Year-Old Daughter

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Neither her parents or the doctors thought it could be blood poisoning.

NEWS: Dad Warns Parents About Sepsis After Losing His 3-Year-Old Daughter

In 2014, 3-year-old Pippa seemed a little under the weather for a few days, but her parents thought it was nothing major. Just a common cold. Then one night, her breathing wasn’t normal. Her parents rushed the little girl to the hospital. Hours later, she died from sepsis.

In honor of World Sepsis Day on Sept. 13, Pippa’s father Peter Howarth is spreading awareness about sepsis to educate other parents.

“What people don’t know about sepsis is the speed and how quickly it changes a life,” Howarth told Huffington Post UK.

Even the doctors didn’t see it coming in Pippa’s case. When she arrived at the hospital, the toddler was diagnosed with pneumonia.

“Pippa went in at 7 p.m. and she died by 4 a.m. That’s how quickly it takes a life,” her dad told the publication.

What Is Sepsis?

According to the National Institute of General Medical Sciences, sepsis is the immune system’s overwhelming response to an infection. It can also be known as blood poisoning. It damages the body by impairing blood flow to organs:

The body releases immune chemicals into the blood to combat the infection. Those chemicals trigger widespread inflammation, which leads to blood clots and leaky blood vessels. As a result, blood flow is impaired, and that deprives organs of nutrients and oxygen and leads to organ damage.”

Sepsis Symptoms

Sepsis presents itself in three stages: sepsis, severe sepsis and septic shock. Ideally, it should be treated in its early stage before any organ damage occurs.

According to the Mayo Clinic, before you can be diagnosed with sepsis, you must exhibit two of the following symptoms:

• Body temperature above 101 F or below 96.8 F
• Heart rate higher than 90 beats a minute
• Respiratory rate higher than 20 breaths a minute

Any one of the following symptoms indicates it’s moved into severe sepsis:

• Significantly decreased urine output
• Abrupt change in mental status
• Decrease in platelet count
• Difficulty breathing
• Abnormal heart pumping function
• Abdominal pain

It’s important to note that you must have had an infection before developing sepsis. Therefore sepsis is most common for people who have been recently or currently hospitalized. Any of the following infections can lead to sepsis:

• Pneumonia
• Abdominal infection
• Kidney infection
• Bloodstream infection (bacteremia)

How Common Is Sepsis?

Those with weakened immune systems are the most likely to develop sepsis. This includes the very young, the elderly and anyone with a weakened immune system due to cancer treatment, organ transplant, or HIV.

According to the National Institute of General Medical Sciences, severe sepsis occurs in more than a million Americans every year. And 15 to 30 percent of those people pass away because of it.

Sepsis Treatment

Once sepsis is diagnosed, it’s important to treat it quickly. According to a 2006 study, the risk of death increases by 7.6 percent with every hour it goes untreated. A combination of antibiotics and IV fluids can be used to treat sepsis, according to Sepsis Alliance.

What Can You Do If You Notice Your Child Exhibiting Symptoms?

Really, the only thing you can do to fight sepsis is to be aware that it exists so that if you notice any of the symptoms and have recently been in a hospital environment or developed an infection, you’ll know to ask about it.

According to Howarth, Pippa’s doctors didn’t diagnose sepsis right away.

“I was there at 10 p.m. and she was wired up to drips, but still demanding pink drinks and a story,” Howarth said.

He continued:

She was bossing me around, she was perky. It got to 3 a.m. and I thought she wasn’t right. She was talking, but it was nonsense and stopped making sense. I got the nurse to come in. They checked on her and there was no mention of sepsis, then off they went. I sat with her half an hour after this point in the room, just holding her hand. I was holding her hand when she stopped breathing. That was it.
It wasn’t until after Pippa died that the doctors realized it was due to septic shock.

“Sepsis — I didn’t hear that word until she had died,” Howarth told the Huffington Post UK. “We didn’t get a chance to fight, she was gone before we could try. We didn’t have a chance, she didn’t have a chance. It was a flick of a switch and she was gone.”

So now, he’s urging parents to ask the question that could save their child’s life: “Could it be sepsis?”

“It may not have changed the outcome with us,” Howarth told the publication. “We might have been unlucky, but maybe — if someone had asked — just maybe, we’d still have her.”

Meanwhile, he urges that you “tell your child you love them every day and cuddle your children while you still can.”