There are four words I wish I asked the doctor, it may have saved my son’s life

“If doctors had been picked up back at the first, second or third opportunity, then there would have been a different outcome,” NSW mum Kylie said. 

It was only a short time before his first birthday when Archie started to look a bit poorly. 

It was August 2022, and the baby was developing a fever and stopped drinking and going to the toilet. It didn’t take long for a faint red rash started to appear on his back and stomach. 

The baby’s symptoms didn’t subside 48 hours later, prompting mum Kylie and dad Gavin to rush Archie to the hospital. 

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Archie was days away from his first birthday when h became gravely ill. Picture: 7News

“He started to deteriorate and become more and more lethargic”

They arrived at the medical facility at 9.30 on Saturday morning, but they didn’t get him to a bed until later that afternoon.

By the time Archie was able to see a doctor, the baby couldn’t use the bathroom. 

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For the next 10 hours, medical staff tried to get him to do a wee to no avail.

Kylie was told she could take her son home and try to get him hydrated with the help of Hydralyte, but she refused. 

“At this point, he started to deteriorate and become more and more lethargic,” Kylie told Tiny Hearts Foundation. 

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Hours passed, and soon it was 8.30pm - Archie wasn’t urinating, so doctors inserted a catheter and a cannula were inserted and took blood for testing. At this point, the little bay was becoming “completely floppy” and was taken to the PICU (Paediatric Intensive Care Unity). 

“Archie had started to become agitated, and a heavy bluish rash started to appear,” mum Kylie told 7News. 

They had no idea what was to come, but looking back, Kylie wished she asked four crucial words: “Could it be sepsis?”

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Archie died from sepsis. Picture: 7News

“Those eight opportunities, they missed them all”

Doctors told the NSW mum that their plan was to sedate the child so he could rest while they treated him; the process would take roughly an hour, so everyone was encouraged to go home and get some rest. 

But 30 minutes later, the family were surrounded by “20 doctors and nurses around our poor little boy, trying to bring him back to life”. Archie was experiencing cardiac arrest, and while doctors brought him back, he suffered another two. 

By this point, their son was “unrecognisable”, his body turning blur and becoming “swollen”. 

“I remember sitting on the bed next to him when he went into cardiac arrest the third time and seeing blood drip from his eye,” heartbroken Kylie recalled.

His body had entered survival mode and was restricting blood from points of his body, causing his arms and legs, which were starting to turn blue. 

Doctors told the devastated parents that their son was suffering from a common cold and a Group A streptococcus, a bacterial infection that developed into sepsis. His body had been through a lot of trauma, and if he were to wake up following his three cardiac arrests, he would likely have permanent brain damage. 

It was then that medical staff told the NSW parents that “it would be in the best interest of Archie to let him go”. It was only a day before his first birthday, so Kylie and Gavin asked the doctors to keep him alive for one more day so they could celebrate. 

“At midnight, as it changed to the 23rd of August, balloons filled the room as we sang happy birthday for the first and only time to Archie, surrounded by our closest family,” Kylie told 7News.  

Kylie and her husband hugged their precious Archie one last time, then in the morning, his machine was switched off; the family watched as the 1yo took his final breaths. 

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Five months after Archie’s devastating death, an internal hospital review found several areas which could be improved. First was the time taken to get Archie to urinate, which was eight hours longer than the recommended four. 

There were eight opportunities for doctors to recognise Archie was “critically ill”, with Kylie stating that her son “should not have died”. 

“Those eight opportunities, they missed them all,” she said. “If it had been picked up back at the first, second or third (opportunity), then there would have been a different outcome.” 

Kylie admitted that she had no idea what sepsis was or how dangerous it could be; now, she’s determined to give others insights into the potentially lethal infection. 

The NSW couple have since launched an annual walk, Walk for Archie, with Sepsis Australia to raise awareness of sepsis and its dangers. 

In its inaugural event, 150 people took part in Walk for Archie, but the couple hopes to make this year’s event even bigger, which takes place on September 14, with participants encouraged to wear Archie’s favourite colour, blue, in his honour.

Originally published as There are four words I wish I asked the doctor, it may have saved my son’s life