‘Healthy’ teen Lauren Menzies tragically dies of sepsis

The death of “brazen and healthy” Lauren Menzies in December 2019 is still making waves, with her family keen to raise awareness about the deadly disease.

Lauren, from Lancashire, in the northwest of England, stayed home after school on December 4, 2019, watching television. She was suffering from what appeared to be a cold or flu.

But then her symptoms suddenly got worse.

Her mother Sarah wrote in a blog: “She was doing well enough to go to school (the next day), but not 100%”.

But Sarah woke up early the next day to the sound of her sick daughter.

Lauren again took a day off from school and the illness was called a stomach bug.

“She spent the day watching modern family and moaning about the flavor Lucozade (her dad Chris) had bought her,” Sarah wrote.

Within hours, Lauren’s symptoms worsened to include rapid breathing and confusion. Sarah rushed her to the emergency room.

She told the Lancashire Post: “When I welcomed her, I was afraid to exaggerate a little.

“There was so much (disease) going around, I didn’t think it was anything out of the ordinary.

“She had been to her dance class on Monday and a drama production on Tuesday, so there was no indication it was anything more serious than a stomach bug.”

The nurses quickly realized that something was seriously wrong.

“A&E were amazing, the triage nurse suspected sepsis, she was given fluids and antibiotics and then transferred to a nearby hospital with a pediatric ward,” Sarah said.

“(Lauren)’s mental state seemed to be falling apart and she was either refusing or struggling with the treatment she was receiving. The decision was made to sedate her.

Within 12 hours, she was deemed seriously ill and transferred to intensive care.

Over the next few days, Lauren’s condition stabilized and her family held out hope that she would be better.

“The number of life-saving interventions she needed was slightly reduced. It all felt like baby steps in the right direction,” she said.

“The physiotherapist came and showed me how to do exercises with her hands and feet. They said it would prevent stiffness “when” she woke up. I happily repeated the wording to my husband later.

“That night I went to bed thinking about the exercises I had been shown for Lauren and how I would do them when I went to see her in the morning.”

When Sarah came the next day, she sensed something was wrong.

She saw ‘worried-looking nurses’ outside her daughter’s room and noticed Lauren had been fitted with a new ventilator.

“The worst part was the noise. The machine was very noisy, almost noisy. It made her chest rise and fall quite violently,” Sarah said.

“Lauren no longer seemed to be sleeping peacefully. It was excruciatingly and painfully evident that her condition had deteriorated since the previous night.

Lauren died on December 11, just six days after being admitted to hospital.

Lauren’s family, from Chorley, is Fund raising and outreach to the Sepsis Research FEAT charity.

They wrote: “We want to focus our fundraising efforts towards finding cures for sepsis.

“That’s why we decided to partner with Sepsis Research FEAT in their fundraising initiatives: to improve outcomes for people affected by sepsis.”

“Sepsis destroys so many lives, it creeps unnoticed and causes untold damage of post sepsis syndrome, loss of limbs and death,” Sarah wrote on social media.

“Not only does it need more awareness, but also more research to help not only the treatment of sepsis, but the long-term effects.”

Sepsis occurs when the body’s response to an infection quickly spirals out of control, injuring its own tissues and organs, which can lead to multiple organ failure and death.

About 5,000 people die of sepsis in Australia each year.

– with The sun