Baby boy Archie Read dies of sepsis on his first birthday after raft of hospital errors missed the deadly disease

The mother of a baby boy who tragically died of sepsis on his first birthday is urging parents to remember four simple words if their children are ever sick in hospital. 

NSW mother-of-two Kylie Read, 36, wishes she had asked doctors ‘could it be sepsis?’ during a 12-hour hospital stay with her son, Archie, in 2022. 

Archie died after a Group A streptococcal infection turned into sepsis which caused his organs to shut down just hours after his first birthday on August 23.

Mrs Read had rushed him to the emergency department after noticing he hadn’t urinated in hours and was refusing formula and food.

While Archie was being processed at the triage desk, Mrs Read noticed a faint rash across his back and informed nurses who she said weren’t ‘overly alarmed’. 

They waited in the emergency department for six hours before Archie was given a bed and Hydralyte through a syringe in the hopes it would make him urinate. 

When nurses put a canular in the little boy’s arm they praised his calm demeanour – not realising his lethargy was a crucial sign his organs were shutting down.

‘That’s why he wasn’t weeing, the heart stops pumping blood to anywhere in the body that doesn’t need it,’ Mrs Read told Daily Mail Australia. 

NSW mother-of-two Kylie Read, 36, wishes she had asked doctors ‘could it be sepsis?’ during a 12-hour hospital stay with her son Archie in August 2022

Mrs Read, 36, and her husband Gavin, 38, are pictured with Archie in hospital

‘So his feet and hands were starting to turn blue.’

Concerns were flagged to the paediatric registrar at 8.30pm for an emergency review after Archie became ‘completely floppy’ and his rash worsened.

SEPSIS SYMPTOMS

• Sepsis is a life-threatening emergency that happens when your body’s response to an infection damages vital organs and, often, causes death 
• Symptoms include:
• Getting very sick, very quickly
• Difficulty breathing
• Confusion
• Not needing to urinate all day or less often than usual
• A rash or blue, grey, pale or blotchy skin
• Feeling your child is very sick – trust your instincts 

Source: NSW Health 

The registrar reviewed Archie two hours later and decided to transfer him to intensive care where he was sedated to allow his body to rest. 

Mrs Read said she and her husband Gavin, 38, also rested before they awoke to ’20 doctors and nurses around our little boy trying to bring him back to life’. 

Archie went into cardiac arrest three times over the next 15 to 20 minutes. 

His parents were told that if it happened one more time there was a 99 per cent chance that he would be brain dead. 

‘They told us his feet and hands would have to be amputated if his organs even recovered and it was his first birthday the next day,’ Mrs Read said. 

The couple begged the doctors to do anything they could to keep Archie alive long enough for family and friends to say their final goodbyes. 

They filled the room with balloons and sung Happy Birthday. Mr and Mrs Read then spent the night in his hospital bed before his life support was switched off. 

Kylie and Gavin are pictured with baby Archie and his older sister Charlotte

Archie sadly died after an infection turned into sepsis which caused his organs to shut down

The little boy celebrated his first birthday just hours before his life support was switched off

Five months later, the couple were handed a report which detailed the hospital’s findings after a third party reviewed how they treated Archie. 

It revealed that hospital staff at the NSW hospital had missed eight opportunities to classify the baby boy as critically ill and give him the appropriate care. 

The report also revealed there had been some early signs that he had sepsis but a pathway to confirm or treat this was activated too late.

‘It’s horrible, it’s been a real struggle to think “Did somebody have a bad day?” It wasn’t one missed opportunities, it was eight,’ Mrs Read said. 

She said the triage nurses failed to pass on crucial information to the doctors when Archie finally got a bed, and that an emergency review that should occur 30 minutes after a patient is flagged as critically ill took staff two hours. 

‘Sepsis takes over the body so fast, time is so important’ Mrs Read said. 

‘It’s hard when I have a document put it front of me that says he should be alive.’

The mother-of-two is now encouraging parents to ask doctors if their children could have sepsis if they ever find themselves in a similar situation.

‘I feel like if I had said those words to the doctor it would have been in the back of their mind. It was flagged somewhere that it could be sepsis but they didn’t go down that path to rule it out,’ Mrs Read said. 

Archie’s older sister Charlotte, now four, is pictured with nine-month-old Parker ‘Archie’ Read

‘Walk for Archie’ is an annual walk held to raise money for Sepsis Australia

More than 150 people attended the first walk in 2023 and raised $21,000 for Sepsis Australia

Archie is survived by his four-year-old sister Charlotte, who was two when he died, and his nine-month-old brother Parker whose middle name is Archie.

‘There were days when you wanted to crumble in the corner and cry but I needed to be strong for Charlotte,’ Mrs Read said. 

‘She knows the pain of losing a brother. I couldn’t live through that pain again.’

The couple have organised an annual walk for Sepsis Australia which helps to raise awareness of the disease by visiting hospitals and educating parents. 

Last year more than 150 people participated in Walk for Archie while wearing blue – Archie’s favourite colour – and raised $21,000 for the organisation. 

The couple plan to walk again this year on World Sepsis Day on September 13.

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