Elia Epifanio: Kart race in memory and education about sepsis

On 31.03.23, just 10 days after his 14th birthday and at the start of the Swiss Karting Championship season, Elia passed away at 09:15.

On Sunday we celebrated Elia's birthday with the family. We took photos with everyone. Looking at the photos today, it's impossible to imagine the tragedy that happened less than 24 hours later.

On the night of 26.03.23 to 27.03.23, I woke up to Elia's severe coughing fits and went to check on him. He had a fever of over 39 degrees and I thought to myself that he must have caught the flu. I told him that he would probably have to stay at home, but that we would check again in the morning before school started. The thermometer still showed a high temperature and he also had severe aching limbs. Again, I thought it was the flu and gave him fever-reducing and pain-relieving medication. He lay down again and I worked from home. When the medication started to take effect, Elia took a lukewarm shower. Shortly afterwards, shortly before midday, he started crying in pain and his breathing was extremely conspicuous and loud. When he lay at my feet crying and begged me to see a doctor, I was worried. As the pediatrician was ill and my family doctor didn't have an appointment until the evening, we had to go to the hospital in Baden.

When we got there, I had to take Elia to the emergency room in a wheelchair as he was in pain and couldn't walk or talk. We weren't given a very warm welcome, on the contrary, I was treated as a mother who consults the emergency room because of a simple fever. When we got to the treatment room, Elia was given medication for the fever and pain and we were told that we would have to wait for it to take effect. At first he felt better and then suddenly Elia told me that his pain was 9 on the pain scale of 1-10. I rang the bell and after half an hour the assistant doctor and the senior doctor entered the room. Prior to this, Elia had only been examined by the assistant doctor, who told me that Elia's pain, which radiated into his abdomen, was typical of pneumonia in children. Elia was too cramped with pain for further examinations. The senior doctor, who hadn't even examined Elia, told me that his blood had been diagnosed with influenza B and that the pain in his chest and back was muscle pain from coughing (Elia didn't even cough in hospital).

They would now discharge me home with him and if his condition didn't improve, I should give him the medication Novalgin in addition. In front of the two doctors, I took my very sick son, put him in the wheelchair and left the hospital. Neither of the doctors thought this was unusual. As his condition was too bad for him to walk himself, I had to get our car from the parking garage and drive to the emergency entrance to pick him up. We drove home with a diagnosis of influenza B. At that moment I trusted the doctors, in hindsight a fatal mistake for which I hate myself all over again.

We returned home around 5 p.m. on 27.03.23. At around 6:30/19:00, Elia was sitting at the dining table with his father while I was in the kitchen. My husband told me to come in for a moment, Elia had blood on his mouth. At first I thought he had torn his lips open because he was constantly breathing through his mouth. I wiped his lips and applied ointment to his lips. Then I went back into the kitchen. My husband then said again that he had blood in his mouth. I thought he was bleeding because of his braces. He rinsed his mouth out with water and I saw that he had blood in his mouth again. At that moment, Elia wanted to lie down in his room and when he coughed, he spat up a lot of blood. We immediately called the ambulance and took Elia to the sofa in the living room.

When the paramedics examined him, it was immediately clear that something was wrong with his lungs. Elia's breathing sounded as if you were blowing air into a glass of water with a straw. I was with him in the ambulance and he was immediately given oxygen and an infusion. We were driven to the hospital in Baden. There were about 10 people around my son in the emergency room, but it left me with the impression that nobody knew exactly what was wrong with him or what to do. Suddenly we were told we had to go to the shock room in the emergency ward. The chaos continued, Elia continued to spit up blood while fully conscious and angrily asked: "How much longer? When do I get to go home?!" I stood in a corner with his jacket in my hand and had to watch .... My husband said to Elia: "Don't worry, everything will be fine! Are you scared?" Elijah's last words in his life were: "Yes daddy, I'm scared!"

Shortly afterwards, the news came that we had to take a helicopter to the children's hospital in Zurich immediately. At that moment I realized that it was life-threatening if the helicopter had to come. Then we were told that there was no helicopter available and that we would have to go by ambulance. So that's what we did. When we arrived almost 20 minutes later and they took Elia out on the stretcher, it was the last time I saw my son half conscious. They ran into the shock room with him and what I heard was: "Cut his pants open!"

A nurse then came out of the room and told us that Elia was being resuscitated and that we should please follow her to another room. We just had to wait there, we had no idea what was wrong with our child at that moment, nor whether she was still alive at all. At some point, we were told that Elia had been resuscitated several times and that his only chance was the ECMO machine. This machine takes over the workings of the heart and lungs. At that moment, the only thing that mattered to us was that he had survived.

Before he was transferred to the intensive care unit, we were allowed to see him briefly in his room. This sight is etched in my memory. I no longer recognized my child. He was wired up, had infusions and had spots everywhere due to blood clotting. I didn't dare touch him at all. He was then transferred to the intensive care unit.

On 28.03.23 we were finally informed of Elia's diagnosis. He had septic shock with a superinfection caused by influenza B. Bacterial pneumonia was also diagnosed on the evening of 27.03.23. The doctors told us that they can't do anything more for him at the moment, although they are in constant contact with other countries. They told us that Elia was the sickest child in the whole of Switzerland. That day, we were with Elia all the time, talked to him and showed him videos of his kart races, to which he even reacted with his pulse. This briefly gave us hope as parents.