Evie's Story
Evie’s story *WARNING –contains details of child loss*
“If we had been listened to, Evie might still be here. Timely diagnosis and early treatment is key to reducing the 8000+ deaths from sepsis each year.”
“If we had been listened to, Evie might still be here. Timely diagnosis and early treatment is key to reducing the 8000+ deaths from sepsis each year.”
Evie was born on the 15th of December 2012 and is the only child to Alex and Matt.
In August 2022, Evie, nine years old, struggled with constant sickness. This was unusual because she was ordinarily healthy child. Tonsilitis, COVID-19 and general fatigue battered her. Evie became pale, tired and lacked energy. Then, at the beginning of September 2022, Evie started to become dizzy and on two occasions, she briefly lost consciousness. Her parents rushed her to the hospital, and it was there that they found her white blood cells were non-existent. She had no immunity, and her platelets were so low, she required an immediate blood transfusion. She also had an infection.
The doctors at the local hospital spoke to the Royal Children's Hospital and transferred her that night by ambulance. Days later, she was having a spinal aspiration to determine the cause of the impact to her bone marrow.
Evie was diagnosed with B-Cell Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia on 9th September 2022, the most common form of childhood blood cancer. Alex and Matt had hoped that with Evie being treated in a world-renowned children’s hospital, she was in the best hands. How wrong they were.
Just over three weeks after being diagnosed, Evie died from septic shock, at the tender age of nine. In the ten days prior to her death, she constantly complained about severe pain when going to the toilet. Evie, her mum and her dad asked staff time and time again to investigate to no avail.
What we know now, is that the infection Evie had at the start of chemotherapy had not effectively been treated and the bacterial infection had spread in her bowel and in her central line. Intensive Care staff also noted that she had a fungal infection.
In the days leading up to her last breath, she struggled to breathe, was sedated and ventilated. Her limbs and torso began to turn purple, and she was brought back from the brink of death multiple times. It was clear that her heart was not going to take much more.
On 5th October 2022 at 7.00pm, Evie took her last breath. Surrounded by her Mum, Dad, Poppy and Grandma. The world lost a shining light and we promised Evie that her death would not be in vain. The Evie Gamble Foundation was born due to the lack of awareness and identification of sepsis in the community and healthcare.
If we had been listened to, Evie might still be here. Timely diagnosis and early treatment is key to reducing the 8000+ deaths from sepsis each year.
