‘Steven was the most loving and kind brother. He was always there when we needed him. He was honest and very loyal. He was the youngest of 5 siblings and we all miss him terribly.’
These are the words of Steven Thiel’s sister Wendy, speaking of a beloved brother lost to sepsis in July 2023 at the age of just 55. Now determined to help raise awareness of sepsis, Wendy explains more of what happened here.
Steven loved his job as a builder – a job he did for most of his working life until he was made redundant in 2021. A lot of people knew and loved him in the town of Faringdon where he grew up. He enjoyed watching sports, spending time with his family and learning about history.
On Tuesday 25th July 2023 Stephen complained of feeling unwell – he said that he felt cold and shivery. He thought that he maybe had COVID but he did a test and it came back negative. Two days later though, on the 27th he was still feeling really poorly, so he decided to ring his doctor. Unfortunately, he couldn’t get through.
The next day – Friday 28th – he tried again and this time managed to get through to the GP. Almost immediately they called an ambulance as it transpired that Steven had an infection on his leg due to Lymphoedema1 which he suffered from. He was admitted via ambulance to the Great Western Hospital in Swindon and diagnosed as having sepsis that day. He was given the sepsis diagnosis in person by his consultant there and I think it is fair to say that he was shocked. I remember saying to him, ‘I didn’t realise how ill you were,’ and he said, ‘Nor did I.’ We were all shocked.
On the Saturday the doctors said that Steven was seriously ill. By Sunday 30th he had got much worse and was not responding to the two courses of antibiotics that he had been given.
He died on Monday 31st July 2023 aged just 55.
Since then I have attended sepsis support groups and had one to one calls and learned a lot about how quickly someone can die of sepsis. It was the speed of his illness that was so shocking to us as a family. My brother was perfectly fine one minute and went rapidly downhill the next.
If we had been aware of how fast sepsis can take hold, we feel like we might have been able to save our brother’s life. We now know that any infection can prove fatal.
So my goal ongoing is to help raise awareness. My family and I had no idea of how sepsis can take someone’s life so quickly.
All we want to do now is help others.
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As a charity Sepsis Research FEAT supports groundbreaking studies into sepsis diagnosis, treatment and outcomes. Amongst these is the GenOMICC study, investigating the genetics of sepsis and critical illness. The study aims to identify potential genetic susceptibility as well as new specific and potentially life-saving treatments. To find out more visit the Our research partners page on the charity’s website here.