Mayo native urges action on sepsis protocols to save lives

THE need for sepsis protocols to save lives in Ireland was highlighted at a Joint Oireachtas Health Committee hearing this morning.

More than 11 million people die in the world every year from sepsis - more than cancer - and it is the biggest killer of children.

The stark figures were given to the committee by Mayo native Ciaran Staunton, who is US based, and who lost his son, Rory, to sepsis.

One week, Ciaran said, he was asking his son what kind of pizza he wanted. Days later he was being asked to choose his coffin.

People are dying preventable deaths in Ireland and something has to be done about it, he said.

Ciaran, from Louisburgh, with wife Orlaith, from Louth, addressed a historic first hearing on sepsis held by the committee to consider awareness, prevention and services.

Their son Rory (12) died from undiagnosed and untreated sepsis in 2012. Daughter Kathleen was only 10 years old when she had to bury her brother.

“Many of you know our tragic story, but it is important to keep telling what happened to him because, tragically, his death should never have happened, and should never happen anywhere, and this is why we are here to ensure that what happened to Rory does not happen again in any hospital in Ireland,” said Ciaran.

Rory scraped his arm playing basketball at school in Queens, New York. Overnight, he spiked a fever and the next day was brought to his paediatrician and then to the emergency department at a major New York hospital where each medical professional who examined him dismissed their concerns and sent him home with a diagnosis of ‘gastric flu’.

“Rory, however, was very sick and the following day when his symptoms worsened, we returned to the hospital where he was admitted to the ICU. That was Friday and on Sunday, April 1, 2012, Rory died from septic shock.”

Said Ciaran: “When we were told that Rory died from sepsis, we had never heard the word. In fact, as Rory lay dying in the hospital the word ‘sepsis’ was never even uttered.

“We discovered that if his condition had been accurately diagnosed when we first sought medical attention, he would be alive today.

“I have given many speeches about Rory’s death but I will never be able to verbalise the agonising pain of child loss and the struggle to keep going, particularly when we think: His life could have been saved.

“Tragically, since Rory’s death, we have heard different versions of his story repeated again and again, and specifically in Ireland where patients and families who had never heard of sepsis had their symptoms missed and their concerns dismissed by healthcare providers, resulting in lives needlessly cut short and families left broken.”

In a recent interview with RTÉ News, Dr. Steve Kerrigan of the Royal College of Surgeons stated that the HSE sepsis figures for the year 2021 show that over 13,300 patients were treated for sepsis in public hospitals in Ireland and of these patients, 2,700 died, he told the committee.

“That is one in five patients who have a sepsis diagnosis in Ireland dying every year of the condition. These figures are not improving.”

When Rory died in New York the Stauntons embarked on a campaign to end preventable deaths from sepsis. They started in New York State where in 2013 a series of protocols were introduced statewide for the recognition and treatment of sepsis named Rory's Regulations.

“These protocols have saved thousands of lives since their inception.”

Ciaran outlined the protocols to the committee and recommended that these regulations and the accompanying Parents Bill of Rights be used as a baseline for care of sepsis here in Ireland. See https://www.endsepsis.org/work/sepsis-protocols/.

Rory's uncle, Fergus O'Dowd, TD, brother of Orlaith Staunton, also addressed the hearing and supported the committee in getting the political parties to all sign up to a programme.

Also represented at the hearing was the Irish Sepsis Foundation and Lil Red's Legacy Sepsis Awareness Campaign.