‘Things will never be the same’ - Father speaks of son’s death from sepsis

The father of a 15-year-old boy who died of sepsis two years ago has said “things will never be the same again”.

Seán Hughes, from Finglas, north Dublin collapsed at his home in January 2018, having shown flu-like symptoms for a number of days. He was rushed to Temple Street Hospital but died in the early hours of January 12th.

Speaking ahead of the teenager's two-year anniversary on Sunday, his father Joe Hughes said "nothing is ever the same again".

“I know life goes on for everyone but it stands still for us here in this house and in this family...I’m sitting in a room and all I have around me is the photographs to remind me of my son,” he told The Irish Times.

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Seán is survived by his father, mother Karen Phoenix and his older sister Zoe. An event to celebrate the student's life is taking place in the Mansion House on Saturday.

Mr Hughes said his son was “the life and soul of the party”. “He was a rapper, an entertainer, he would go out of his way to help people,” he said.

“Since Seán passed away we’ve had people coming up and telling us stories about him... One guy told us Seán used to walk him home when he was being bullied to make sure he was ok. Seán never told us anything about that. He was one in a million.”

Mr Hughes and his partner Ms Phoenix launched a sepsis awareness campaign, ‘Lil Red’s Legacy’, following their son’s death.

“We were shocked to find out that only 28 per cent of the Irish public had an accurate understanding of what sepsis was or is. None of our family or friends had ever heard of sepsis,” Mr Hughes said.

“Our campaign started up as a social media page and now we go around the schools and colleges giving a sepsis awareness presentation. We’ve been to a couple of corporate gigs giving the presentation as well.”

He added: “We’re not medical experts and we’re not claiming to be. We’re just a concerned family that are doing all that we can to raise awareness so another family doesn’t have to go through what we’re going through.”

Sepsis is the body’s abnormal response to infection that results in the body’s own immune system attacking its own tissues and organs and can be life threatening.

It can develop from any infection and can affect anyone, but it is more common in the very young, the elderly, and people with pre-existing medical conditions or those with a weakened immune system.

Symptoms can include slurred speech, excessive drowsiness, muscle or joint pain, severe breathlessness and pale or discoloured skin. The HSE's 2018 Sepsis Report shows there were 14,639 cases detected in Ireland's health system. The condition kills 3,000 people in Ireland annually.