Will's Story

Back in March, we lived every parent's worst nightmare when we were told our gorgeous son Will had sepsis and would need to be transferred from Waterford to Crumlin Hospital. He quickly deteriorated and went into septic shock. He was intubated, and we were told his organs were beginning to fail. The IPATS team travelled from Dublin, bringing critical care to Will and saving his life, giving him a blood transfusion and stabilising him for the journey to Crumlin. Kissing our beautiful boy goodbye as he went into that ambulance is an experience we will never forget and one we wouldn't wish on anyone.

Will rallied slightly on the journey but then had a very rough night in PICU, and we were told he was the sickest child in the country. But miraculously, by lunchtime the next day, he had begun to show slight signs of improvement and continued to do so, coming off the ventilator after a week and transferring to a general ward.

Yet for a few days, Will was spiking temperatures and was still clearly unwell. His amazing consultant, Dr Sinead Harty, finally got to the bottom of it - a CT scan showed he had a very deep throat abscess, which had most likely originally caused the sepsis. A quick operation that night and two weeks of IV antibiotics later we could finally go home. In total, we spent almost a month in Crumlin.

To look at Will now, you would never know that he was critically ill just a few short months ago. We are the luckiest family in the world, and we want to help raise awareness of sepsis. Please watch out for a high temperature, drowsiness, and, importantly, dry nappies.It's not necessarily as dramatic as you think it will be