"I didn’t know how quickly sepsis could take hold. We started to live every parent’s worst nightmare"

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

He vomited at the walk-in centre in Sheffield, so they were sent to the Acute Assessment Unit at Sheffield Children’s Hospital. 

Becky said: “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 said: “The doctors and nurses on the unit 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). 

George spent a week on a ventilator on the ICU but as he recovered he was able to go 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.”  

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: NHS online, Sepsis Alliance, and the UK Sepsis Trust.