Warrior spirit keeps Sepsis threat to the fore

The Sepsis Warriors have redoubled their efforts to raise awareness of the life threatening condition in Cavan, and aim to bring it to the EU next summer.

Sepsis is not an infection; it is an inflammatory reaction to an infection that is already in the body. Sinead O'Reilly, who is a nurse, said sepsis does not discriminate who it affects.

The three women - Hannah Tormey, Cathriona Cahill and Sinead O’Reilly - which has now become four with the addition of Kilinkere woman Johanne Stafford, have been visiting community groups and football clubs across the county to raise awareness on the condition, which sadly took the lives of family members belonging to nurses Cathriona and Sinead. For Hannah, her daughter Sophie had a frightening encounter with the condition but thankfully survived.

Their campaign began after they participated in the Bailieborough St Patrick's Day parade. They have since visited the Dáil to share their stories and with the aim of changing policy to allow new diagnostic machines to be installed in more Irish hospitals. They also want Sepsis to be brought to the fore when Ireland assumes Presidency of the EU Council on July 1 next year.

They called for an entire reform on how the Irish healthcare system deals with the potentially fatal illness, something for which they continue to campaign.

In order for the machines to be installed in hospitals, Sinead believes there needs to be greater awareness of the scale of the problem; noting she does not believe sepsis figures are being recorded accurately.

“I think if we put the time and money into actually focusing on exactly what is happening on the ground and getting our numbers right, that we would have a much bigger picture.”

Looking at this picture, she believes it would be a “no brainer” to allocate more funding to equipment for sepsis.

“The problem is huge but it's not even recorded properly,” she pointed out, adding that some death certificates do not list sepsis as a cause of death.

“If we're not counting them properly, we have no idea how big the problem is therefore how can the government allocate money to something when they don't know how big it is?”

Speaking on the EU presidency, she hopes that sepsis can be highlighted to allow all countries in the EU to record sepsis figures in the same manner.

“If we can get the policy changed on how things are even accounted for, on how we collect our data and then how we're manging it.”

They also called for the HSE's 'Action on Sepsis: Five Year Strategy (2024 – 2029)' plan to be published. Having started the North East Sepsis Awareness page, they hope this will bring their campaign to a larger audience. They have recently made contact with Cavan County Council whom they look forward to working with in the future.

“We'll get a huge amount of people,” Sinead shared her hopes with the Celt.

Their county-wide talks have brought varying numbers of interest, from ninety at a Cavan Women's Shed gathering recently to seven last Wednesday in Arva.

“Even if there was only one, that one person hearing the stories and creating the awareness is enough. We'd be happy to speak to one person because you just never know.”

The Blackrock Clinic nurse said the feedback they are receiving is “amazing”. They are being approached while out and about in the community and on social media with stories of how the campaign has saved somebody's loved one or led to them identifying sepsis in time.

“It's so reassuring to know that we've helped.”

Bookings for their talks continue to come in, with September onwards set to be busy for the four women.

“Anywhere that people congregate, we are happy to come to you.

“We know we can make a difference by creating awareness, by telling our stories and people are listening.”