Jason Watkins 'still blames himself' over daughter's death in heartbreaking GMG interview
Jason Watkins and Clare are hoping to raise awareness of sepsis in their one-off documentary for ITV, In Memory of Maudie. The two joined Susanna Reid and Adil Ray on Good Morning Britain to explain why more resources need to be put into raising awareness of the illness. The couple spoke about how they blame themselves for not pushing for doctors to keep their daughter in hospital despite being told Maudie simply had croup.
Susanna remarked: “Any parent, anyone will feel that viscerally, that attempt not to lose your daughter. I suppose what is so tragic about this is the signs of sepsis should be spotted but aren’t because it is very hard to spot them and that’s what led to Maudie’s death.”
Clara replied: “I’d not even heard of sepsis before Maude died. I had heard of septicaemia but not sepsis and they are different and it’s not like meningitis which is easier to spot – you’ll have very clear signs.
“It is more insidious. but when you do know the signs, when you do know what you’re looking for then you know.
“So it’s important to learn what they are.”
Jason added: “Those symptoms often hide behind presenting symptoms. So it might be a cold or chest infection that the sepsis is lurking underneath.
“So one has to ask, ‘Could it be sepsis? We have to rule this out first and then look at those presenting symptoms.’
“It is a very complicated, infant A&E is very is complicated.”
Adil commented: “In Maudie’s case, she was unwell and she’d been in hospital hadn’t she and there had been people who had checked her over.
“You thought, oh she’s okay and she went to bed like any other child would and it was in the morning you discovered something wasn’t right.”
“We took her to the hospital, to A&E, two days in a row and both times were sent home because both times they misdiagnosed her and said she had croup,” Clara shared.
“I believe sepsis is a secondary illness so she had flu and she had a rasping cough and we were very reassured, we went to the hospital and were sent home twice and I think at that stage before your child dies, you believe what you’re told when a doctor tells you.
“I was incredibly reassured because my instinct was she’s really not well but if they’re telling me she’s okay and sending her home and haven’t asked to keep her overnight then it’s fine.”
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Jason added: “Going back the second time when we drove Maudie to the hospital for the second time, she was having breathing difficulties and those are the things that are classic symptoms of sepsis, where your child is fighting for breath and her eyes were rolling into her head.
“When we came into the A&E department, I wanted to say to all the healthcare professionals, ‘Did you not see what she was like when she came in?'”
The actor later added: “It’s hard for us as parents, that’s one of the painful things, ‘Did we do everything we could have?’
“It’s easy to blame yourself and I still do because I was there when she was discharged the second time.”
Clara added: “We always will because it’s that instinct thing, ‘If I had just been more… demanded and stuck with my instinct she was seriously ill and not been so accepting.”
Good Morning Britain airs weekdays on ITV from 6am.
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