William: A Life Stolen By iGAS

This is a celebration of a life taken too soon by an invisible enemy, Invasive Group A Streptococcus (iGAS) that developed into Sepsis. He was my only child, and he did not display any of the 'Sepsis Six' symptoms widely publicised via a government campaign.

He had a cough-just a cough. An out-of-hours GP diagnosed him with mild croup and gave him a dose of steroids. Twelve hours later, I woke up to find him lifeless on the bed next to me, and I frantically called 999. I performed CPR on him until the ambulance crew arrived. He was pronounced brain stem dead that afternoon, and life as I knew it was destroyed forever.

I spent countless hours researching all I could about iGAS and Sepsis because I needed to understand what went wrong. That research is included here, in the hope that I can share the knowledge I gained to prevent another family from suffering the same tragedy. My knowledge now will not bring my son back, but if his story could save just one life, it would be worth it.

WE ALL NEED TO QUESTION "COULD IT BE SEPSIS?"