Jeff D.

My beloved Jeff was taken from me this year following three days in hospital. At the time I had to devote my time to my elderly mother who was recovering from a hip operation. Jeff was fine in himself but was admitted to a local hospital for three days to have a lump removed from his neck. He was discharged the day after my mother to whom I was attending. He rang to tell me he had arrived home but his neck was weeping and bleeding and that he felt shaky but clammy, his heart felt like it was trying to escape from his chest, and he couldn’t breathe. I asked him to go back to the hospital but he said he felt too ill and was going to bed at that time, I was dealing with a bed bound mum and wasn’t familiar with sepsis. (Sepsis and Surgery)

The next day, Jeff informed me that he was still feeling the worst he’d ever felt and agreed to return to the hospital with his neck still messy. He waited for two hours in A&E and, feeling so ill, left in a taxi without having been seen. The hospital then telephoned him at home but he told them he felt too ill to return. Two days later Jeff went to the doctor who said that the staples in his neck were septic and told him to go straight to the hospital again. This time he was readmitted for 24 hours without any real treatment.

A consultant discharged him the following morning, saying that he didn’t consider Jeff’s condition to be serious enough to warrant hospitalisation and discharged him with some antibiotics. Jeff looked grey and very very ill. Shortly after being discharged, my wonderful soulmate of many years sat in his usual chair and died. He was 65 years old. He had suffered for a long time with Crohn’s, which could have weakened his immune system. (Sepsis and Impaired Immune System) The coroner said he died from a heart attack but, having since read up on sepsis, I KNOW this is what he had. Now I have to live wracked in guilt that I hadn’t taken him to the hospital and told them he had sepsis. I cannot put in a complaint against his treatment as I am not his next of kin and his family (to whom he was not very close) will not agree to signing a third party consent form for me to push Jeff’s case, saying that now he’s gone, that’s it! Now I’m left with heartache, guilt, and a huge part of me empty. PLEASE look after your loved ones and read up on sepsis. It destroys more than one life at a time!!!

Source: J White, partner