16-07-2025
Our beautiful girls never got to grow up – they died hours after GPs failed to spot the warning signs of common killer
AS Laura Topping looks at the family photos that line the hallway, she pauses on her little girl, Ella.
'Ella should be 16 and thinking about prom at the moment,' says Laura. 'But she'll forever be four years old.'
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Laura, 44, has watched her other children grow up without their big sister.
'Her younger brother Ryan is 13 and she has a sister Sadie, 11, who she never met.
'Their family photos on the walls at home show their whole childhoods so far, Ella's stop at the age of four.'
Ella suddenly died from sepsis in March 2013, after showing clear warning signs.
She had been unwell for a week, with symptoms of a typical kid's bug, visiting the GP at least four times.
But Laura, from Plymouth, says her death could have been avoided had the medics who treated her considered sepsis.
'Ella was perfect,' she tells Sun Health. 'She adored the colour purple, and loved to dress up as princesses and was a bubbly, smiley little girl.
'Ella was rarely unwell and always considered fit and healthy.'
Ella's story is painfully similar to Mia Glynn, 8 - and those of countless other children.
Tragic Mia died on December 9, 2022, just 24 hours after seeing the GP about a cough.
Dad Soron Glynn, 40, from Biddulph, Staffordshire, says: 'I remember a senior doctor saying they'd done everything they could.
The signs and symptoms of sepsis to look out for, according to The UK Sepsis Trust
'We had no idea what had happened.
'As well as grieving our incredible daughter, we had police at the house taking pictures in case anything untoward had happened.
'It took six days for sepsis to be recognised as the cause of death.'
Dr Ron Daniels, founder and chief medical advisor, at The UK Sepsis Trust, says: 'Every day we hear about healthy, young people who develop sepsis and, in what feels like the blink of an eye, lose their life or are left with life-changing after-effects.'
Sepsis kills five people every hour in the UK, and is responsible for more deaths each year (48,000) than breast, bowel and prostate cancer combined.
Yet only 31 per cent of the UK population feel confident in identifying sepsis symptoms if they or someone else were affected, according to The UK Sepsis Trust.
Sepsis, which many may know as the old term of blood poisoning, is when the body overreacts to an infection, rather than helping to fight it.
This can reduce the blood supply to vital organs such as the brain, heart, and kidneys, eventually leading to multiple organ failure.
'Sepsis arises in people of any age, whether or not they've got an underlying illness,' says Dr Daniels.
'And although it always starts with an infection such as pneumonia, chest infections or urinary tract infections, it's unknown why some people develop sepsis in response to these common infections when others don't.
'As a result, sepsis presents very differently in each patient and can be really challenging to identify.'
But though sepsis is hard to spot - due to the fact it mimics so many other conditions - doing so quickly is crucial.
The risk of death from sepsis increases by 1-2 per cent with every hour that passes without treatment, says The UK Sepsis Trust.
When Ella fell ill at playgroup on February 25, 2013, she became clingy to Laura, an assistant to a motivational speaker, and had a high temperature.
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'She became more feverish as the day went on and started vomiting throughout the night,' Laura says.
'My husband Andrew and I took her to the GP the next morning as her temperature was getting hard to control with paracetamol and ibuprofen.
'But the doctor said it was a viral infection and we were 'doing the right thing' medicating to keep the temperature down and symptoms at bay.'
After another unsettled night, Laura took Ella back to the GP on February 27, after she'd been very uncomfortable and unable to sleep.
She was told again it was a viral infection.
'I felt like we were being fobbed off,' recalls Laura. 'The next day Ella woke with a noticeable rash on her face, right-hand side and upper arm.
'We went back to the GP in the morning, who diagnosed rubella, which is a viral infection and not treatable with antibiotics.'
By that afternoon, Laura couldn't touch Ella because she was in such discomfort.
Lying on the sofa, with a rash progressively getting worse, Laura took her daughter back to the GP for the fourth time who gave her antibiotics for an ear infection.
'By Friday morning (March 1) she was hallucinating so I called an ambulance,' says Laura.
'She was limp. She'd developed a bright red rash all over her body, with swollen lips and eyes.
'When we got to the hospital, they treated it like a contagious disease and we were in isolation.
The 6 key symptoms
Dr Ron Daniels says: 'There are six key symptoms you can look for, and they spell the word sepsis.'
S: Slurred speech or confusion
E: Extreme pain in the muscles or joints
P: Passing no urine in a day
S: Severe breathlessness
I: 'It feels like I'm going to die' - 'which people really do say,' says Dr Daniels.
S: Skin that's mottled, discoloured or very pale.
'If you spot any one of those six signs in the context of infection, you should go straight to A&E,' says Dr Daniels.
'Our Sepsis Savvy resources will equip you with the knowledge you need to seek urgent treatment at the right time."
Visit The Sepsis Trust for more information.
'The consultant paediatrician suspected Kawasaki disease which is a condition that causes blood vessel inflammation.'
Ella stayed in hospital overnight but by the next morning, she was totally unresponsive. 'They thought it could be meningitis,' says Laura. 'Before they could do a lumbar puncture or CT scan though, she went into cardiac arrest.
'The doctors and nurses worked for hours to bring her back but it was too late.'
It took weeks for sepsis to be identified as the cause of Ella's death.
'They told us it was myocarditis, which is an infection in the lining of the heart. It was only when I read the actual postmortem I saw it was sepsis - no one told us.'
Ella was rarely unwell and always considered fit and healthy
Laura Topping
Derriford Hospital in Plymouth, where Ella was treated, expressed its condolences to the family.
Darryn Allcorn, Chief Nurse and Director of Integrated Professions, said: "There were missed opportunities and we fully accept the conclusions reached by the Coroner.
"We enhanced the training of staff around sepsis and the utilisation of Paediatric Early Warning Scores (PEWS) in 2015. We know that these changes do not undo the loss suffered by Ella's family, and we are truly sorry for the pain and grief they have endured.'
But Laura says she'll never know whether her daughter would have survived had sepsis been identified sooner.
Similarly, it took days for the parents of Mia to be told the cause of her death was sepsis.
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Dad Soron says: 'It sounds like a cliché, but she was full of energy, bright and inquisitive.
'Just months before she died, I was tucking her into bed one night and she asked me 'why are we here?' It was such a big question. I remember giving her a hug and saying we were put here to enjoy ourselves, enjoy life and be whatever you want to be.'
Mia never got to grow up and realise her potential though.
On December 5, she came home from school with a sore throat.
Soron and Mia's mum Katie, 38, didn't think much of it and after being dosed up with Calpol, Mia went to school the next day.
By December 8, with Mia getting worse, Katie took her to the GP.
'She'd been eating less and was struggling with fluids,' says Soron.
'The doctor said we were doing the right thing but if it got worse to come back.'
Soron and Katie had no idea at the time just how bad things would get for their precious first-born daughter. The afternoon of December 8, Katie took Mia back to the doctors who gave her antibiotics.
But by 1.30am, Mia was unresponsive and the pair called an ambulance.
While Mia was rushed to hospital with three medics in an ambulance, she went into cardiac arrest and tragically lost her life.
'Misdiagnosed all the time'
Dr Daniels says parents need to be listened to to prevent the needless loss of lives like Mia and Ella's.
It's why last year, Martha's Rule was introduced in NHS England.
Martha Mills died in 2021 after developing sepsis in hospital, having been admitted with a pancreatic injury after falling off her bike.
Martha's family's concerns about her deteriorating condition were not responded to, and in 2023 a coroner ruled that Martha, aged 13, would probably have survived had she been moved to intensive care earlier.
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In the wake of Martha's death, a new law was introduced, dubbed 'Martha's Rules' giving parents or guardians the right to an urgent second medical opinion if they have concerns over treatment.
Dr Daniels says: 'It's critical that healthcare professionals listen when patients' loved ones and carers express concerns.
'There have been so many sepsis cases in which outcomes could have been improved or lives could have been saved – it's more important than ever that members of the public feel empowered to act as advocates when their loved ones are unwell.
'Public recognition of sepsis as a medical emergency has improved massively over the last few years, but we still need much better awareness of the signs and symptoms of sepsis.'
Soron and Katie founded aiM charity in memory of their daughter Mia in March last year.
It raises awareness of sepsis and offers bereavement support for those affected by the condition too.
Soron says spending 15 minutes learning about the symptoms of sepsis could save a life. 'It's a condition that can be hidden by other things,' he says.
'It's misdiagnosed all the time but learning about the signs and knowing what to look for could mean other families won't have to go through what ours has.'
