![\"Melissa](\"http:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/i\/pix\/2016\/06\/14\/00\/353CAA3100000578-0-Melissa_Mead_lost_her_one_year_old_baby_son_William_to_sepsis_in-a-58_1465860596600.jpg\")
![\"William](\"http:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/i\/pix\/2016\/06\/14\/00\/353CA99900000578-0-image-a-59_1465860596602.jpg\")
<\/p>\nMelissa Mead finds it hard to recall the time when she knew nothing about sepsis or the devastating swiftness with which it can kill.<\/p>\n
Since her baby son, William, died from it, aged one, in December 2014, following a catalogue of errors, misdiagnoses and missed opportunities by doctors and the NHS helpline, she\u2019s become an expert on the subject, campaigning to raise awareness and ensure others don\u2019t die needlessly.<\/p>\n
So consider her shock when she learned, only months ago, that she herself had almost died from the condition. Following surgery in 2011, she became critically ill with an infection.<\/p>\n
The revelation that the infection was sepsis came during a session with the psychiatrist who has treated her for depression and post-traumatic shock since William died.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Melissa Mead lost her one-year-old baby son, William (right), to sepsis in 2014. She was shocked to learn she herself almost died from the condition in 2011<\/p>\n
\u2018There are no words to explain how profoundly the trauma of losing William affected my mental health,\u2019 she recalls. \u2018I am still having intensive therapy, and during one session my psychiatrist asked me: \u201cHow does it make you feel to know you survived sepsis and William didn\u2019t?\u201d I was confused. I said: \u201cWhat do you mean?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2018He has access to my medical notes and he said: \u201cWhen you were very ill in hospital five years ago, you had sepsis.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2018I can\u2019t really remember the rest of the conversation because I was so shocked. I asked him to explain and he told me the infection after my operation was sepsis.<\/p>\n
\u2018I wonder now if I\u2019d been aware of what it was and what to look out for, whether we\u2019d have been more alert to the symptoms when William developed it.<\/p>\n
\u2018We should have been told. If we had been, things could have been so different.\u2019<\/p>\n
Melissa, 29, who is five months pregnant with her second child, has reason to be angry. But she focuses her efforts on a campaign to raise awareness of the condition, which kills 44,000 people a year in the UK.<\/p>\n Earlier this year, she met Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt, who announced in April that he was throwing Government weight behind a public health initiative, backed by the Daily Mail and the UK Sepsis Trust. But a subsequent meeting with Mr Hunt \u2014 due to have taken place this week \u2014 has been postponed, and she\u2019s urging prompt action.<\/p>\n \u2018It is vital the message gets out to people,\u2019 she says. \u2018Every day in the UK, four children and 120 adults die from it, and many of those lives could be saved if people knew what to look for.<\/p>\n \u2018There is not a single symptom that screams out, but several, so it can be quite confusing to pinpoint. The message should centre on simply getting the word sepsis into everyone\u2019s minds.\u2019<\/p>\n William Mead tragically died after medics failed to spot he had signs of sepsis \u2013 with a charity saying 14,000 lives a year could be saved if more people were aware of the symptoms<\/p>\n Mrs Mead and her husband Paul are now calling on Jeremy Hunt to launch a national campaign to make families aware of the symptoms\u00a0<\/p>\n She adds: \u2018They should ask their doctor: \u201cCould this be sepsis?\u201d And if lives are to be saved, it is crucial to act quickly, within the \u201cgolden hour\u201d of the condition setting in.<\/p>\n \u2018Everyone should be sepsis aware, and it won\u2019t cost millions to get the message across. The worst thing is knowing William died needlessly.\u2019<\/p>\n Sepsis is a dangerously fast-moving condition where the body\u2019s immune system over-reacts to an infection, which can be caused by anything from a cough to a cut.<\/p>\n Sepsis, also referred to as blood poisoning or septicaemia, is a potentially life-threatening condition, triggered by an infection or injury.<\/p>\n In sepsis, the body\u2019s immune system goes into overdrive as it tries to fight an infection.<\/p>\n This can reduce the blood supply to vital organs such as the brain, heart and kidneys.<\/p>\n Without quick treatment, sepsis can lead to multiple organ failure and death.\u00a0<\/p>\n Early symptoms of sepsis may include:<\/p>\n In some cases, symptoms of more severe sepsis or septic shock (when your blood pressure drops to a dangerously low level) develop soon after. These can include:<\/p>\n Severe sepsis and septic shock are medical emergencies. If you think that you or someone in your care has one of these conditions, call 999 and ask for an ambulance.<\/p>\n Source: NHS Choices\u00a0<\/p>\n The immune system attacks not only the invading bacteria, but also its own tissues and organs. If spotted in time, it is easy to treat with strong antibiotics, delivered intravenously \u2014 but delays can prove fatal.<\/p>\n When Melissa looks back on her own experience of sepsis she realises how perilously close to death she came.<\/p>\n In April 2011, she\u2019d been suffering severe stomach pains and a urinary tract infection.<\/p>\n She left her office, where she is PA to a financial director, to see her GP who, believing she had appendicitis, arranged for her to have surgery urgently at the hospital near her home in Penryn, Cornwall.<\/p>\n \u2018I was breathless with pain; faint, dizzy, sick,\u2019 she recalls. She collapsed as she walked to the hospital and a passing police car called an ambulance. In the early hours of the morning she had an emergency appendectomy.<\/p>\n Her partner Paul, a telecoms engineer, was away on a training course in Yorkshire with the Territorial Army. \u2018I didn\u2019t want to worry him, so I didn\u2019t tell him I was ill,\u2019 says Melissa.<\/p>\n \u2018The next day they were going to discharge me, but I remember struggling down the corridor clutching the wall for support and crying in pain. A nurse saw me and arranged for me to stay another night. The next day I felt a bit better, so I was sent home with painkillers.\u2019<\/p>\n By then Paul had arrived home to find Melissa very ill. \u2018He took me to the doctor\u2019s and I couldn\u2019t even get to the surgery without vomiting. I was readmitted to hospital, but then sent home again.<\/p>\n \u2018That night I became very ill. My temperature soared to 41c, I started hallucinating, imagining there were spiders crawling over me, and was talking gibberish. Paul took me to the out-of-hours doctor, who called the hospital and I was readmitted for a third time.<\/p>\n \u2018My temperature was still high, but I felt clammy and cold. I felt so ill I just wanted to close my eyes and die. If someone had offered me a pill to end my life then, I would have gladly taken it.\u2019<\/p>\n Paul made urgent calls to Spain where Melissa\u2019s parents, Lesley and Bernard, and sister, Louise, live. She remembers her mum and sister sitting at her bedside, their faces etched with worry. A scan revealed that Melissa was suffering from a pelvic abscess \u2014 her appendix, it emerged, had been taken out needlessly.<\/p>\n She had surgery to remove the abscess and a drain fitted. But it was sepsis that threatened her life.<\/p>\n \u2018The situations were very different for William and me, and sepsis presented differently in both of us,\u2019 she says. \u2018William had a chesty cough; mine began with a urinary tract infection.<\/p>\n \u2018I struggle to piece together everything that happened then, it\u2019s just a blur. But if I\u2019d been told I\u2019d had sepsis I would have been aware of its dangers, conscious that it was something to look out for.\u2019<\/p>\n After William\u2019s death, Mrs Mead was receiving therapy for depression and post-traumatic shock. It was during one of these sessions that her psychiatrist said she almost died of sepsis too, according to her medical notes<\/p>\n An inquiry after his death revealed that there had been a staggering 15 failures in his care. Today, Mrs Mead is beset by grief that sometimes threatens to engulf her, but also by guilt that she is alive while William died<\/p>\n Fortunately in Melissa\u2019s case prompt treatment with fluids and intravenous antibiotics saved her life, but the haul back to health was painstaking.<\/p>\n Overwhelmed by tiredness, loss of appetite and sickness, she lost 2 st and was off work for two-and-a-half months. It was another year, she says, before she felt \u2018normal\u2019.<\/p>\n Today, she is beset not only by grief that sometimes threatens to engulf her, but also by guilt that she is alive while William died.<\/p>\n \u2018I\u2019d have given my last breath so my child could live,\u2019 she says.<\/p>\n William had been suffering from a persistent, stubborn cough for three months and although his parents \u2014 diligent, articulate and caring \u2014 had taken him repeatedly to doctors, vital warning signs that he was critically ill were missed.<\/p>\n An inquiry after his death revealed that there had been a staggering 15 failures in his care.<\/p>\n William was particularly treasured because Melissa had not believed she would ever become pregnant. She has only half an ovary, following seven operations to remove three ovarian tumours<\/p>\n Now she is pregnant again, Mrs Mead feels as though the new baby is a gift from William. She said: \u2018Of course, we feel joy, but it is mixed with such profound regret that he is not here to share the new baby with us.\u2019<\/p>\n Yet had William been correctly diagnosed, there is a \u2018very good chance\u2019, the expert witness at his inquest stated, that he would still be here today. William was particularly treasured because Melissa had not believed she would ever become pregnant. She has only half an ovary, following seven operations to remove three ovarian tumours.<\/p>\n But then \u2014 after she and Paul, 32, had been together for ten years \u2014 she became pregnant.<\/p>\n Now that she is pregnant again, she grapples with a complex amalgam of emotions.<\/p>\n \u2018In a way, I think of this new baby as a gift from William. Of course, we feel joy, but it is mixed with such profound regret that he is not here to share the new baby with us.\u2019<\/p>\n She gains solace, however, from her sepsis awareness campaign and the many messages of gratitude she has received from those who, through hearing William\u2019s story, have been alert to symptoms.<\/p>\n Mrs Mead said: \u2018My little boy has helped saved lives and he\u2019ll live on in people\u2019s minds because of that\u2019<\/p>\n She treasures a letter from a mother who hoped it would bring a \u2018tiny chink of happiness\u2019 to Melissa to know her daughter had been saved thanks to William\u2019s story.<\/p>\n A husband contacted her to express his heartfelt thanks: his wife, who had just given birth to their first child, had developed sepsis but was saved by swift medical intervention.<\/p>\n \u2018Seeing you on TV planted a thought. It made me call triage [where patients are assessed for urgency]. You saved my family,\u2019 he wrote.<\/p>\n \u2018It makes me feel very humble,\u2019 says Melissa. \u2018I think, \u201cMy little boy has helped saved lives\u201d, and he\u2019ll live on in people\u2019s minds because of that.<\/p>\n \u2018I\u2019ve been told I\u2019m brave, but I\u2019m not. I\u2019m just a mum who loved her son, and by campaigning in his name, by telling his story \u2014 even though, every time I re-live the trauma of his death it causes me terrible pain \u2014 it allows me still to be William\u2019s mum.<\/p>\n \u2018All I can do is get through each day and take comfort from the fact that William is helping to save others\u2019 lives.\u2019<\/p>\n YOU can donate to the UK Sepsis Trust via <\/span>justgiving.com\/williamoscarmead<\/span> or by guessing the credentials of Melissa\u2019s new baby, <\/span>whatsinmybelly.com\/baby-pool-guess-the-peanut-11459<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Melissa Mead finds it hard to recall the time when she knew nothing about sepsis or the devastating swiftness with which it can kill. Since her baby son, William, died from it, aged one, in December 2014, following a catalogue of errors, misdiagnoses and missed opportunities by doctors and the NHS helpline, she\u2019s become an […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-40336","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/healthmedicinet.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40336","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/healthmedicinet.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/healthmedicinet.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/healthmedicinet.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/healthmedicinet.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=40336"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/healthmedicinet.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40336\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/healthmedicinet.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40336"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/healthmedicinet.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=40336"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/healthmedicinet.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=40336"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"http:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/i\/pix\/2016\/06\/13\/22\/353DA16B00000578-0-image-m-12_1465854036490.jpg\")
\u2018I spent 25k on diamonds then flushed them down the loo\u2019:\u2026<\/span><\/p>\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/i\/pix\/2016\/06\/13\/15\/353834D700000578-0-image-a-52_1465829489959.jpg\")
Which disease are YOU most scared of? Survey finds we\u00bfre\u2026<\/span><\/p>\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/i\/pix\/2016\/06\/13\/23\/353D37C600000578-0-image-a-15_1465857393930.jpg\")
Is using the power of your MIND the best way to beat chronic\u2026<\/span><\/p>\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/i\/pix\/2016\/06\/13\/21\/353D216300000578-0-image-a-25_1465849146279.jpg\")
World first\u2019s toxic shock syndrome vaccine \u2018protects women\u2026<\/span><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/i\/pix\/2016\/06\/14\/00\/353CAA1900000578-0-image-a-43_1465860393275.jpg\")
![\"\"](\"http:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/i\/pix\/2016\/06\/14\/00\/353CA99500000578-0-image-a-44_1465860393397.jpg\")
<\/p>\n![\"Mrs](\"http:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/i\/pix\/2016\/06\/14\/00\/353CA95500000578-0-image-a-26_1465860312702.jpg\")
<\/p>\n THE WARNING SIGNS OF SEPSIS\u00a0<\/span> <\/h3>\n
\n
\n
![\"After](\"http:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/i\/pix\/2016\/06\/14\/00\/353CAA3500000578-0-image-a-45_1465860406380.jpg\")
<\/p>\n![\"An](\"http:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/i\/pix\/2016\/06\/14\/00\/353CAA1500000578-0-image-m-67_1465861875846.jpg\")
![\"Today,](\"http:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/i\/pix\/2016\/06\/14\/00\/353CA98D00000578-0-image-a-68_1465861882111.jpg\")
<\/p>\n![\"William](\"http:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/i\/pix\/2016\/06\/14\/00\/353CAA3D00000578-0-image-a-49_1465860461582.jpg\")
<\/p>\n![\"Now](\"http:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/i\/pix\/2016\/06\/14\/00\/353CAA4500000578-0-image-a-50_1465860469613.jpg\")
<\/p>\n![\"Mrs](\"http:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/i\/pix\/2016\/06\/14\/00\/353CA97A00000578-0-image-a-51_1465860476953.jpg\")
<\/p>\n