A Secret Killer: The Story of Sepsis

~As told by his father, Ken Kennedy

DUNCAN KENNEDY HAD been fighting a pesky cough for over a year. He went to see a doctor several times, but was repeatedly told it was just a virus. Eventually he was told that he should get a chest x-ray, but Duncan was in the process of moving cities and never made an appointment. On March 2, 2016, Duncan started to cough up blood. He reluctantly went to the hospital where he was told he would need a chest tube. He sent his parents a selfie just before the procedure—thumbs up and all—telling them not to worry. He was finally going to be rid of that relentless cough.

At 2 a.m. on March 3, 2016 Ken and Nora Kennedy got a call from the hospital saying their son had gone into cardiac arrest. By the time they reached the hospital, most of his organs had failed and he was on life support, his lungs so full of fluid that he wasn’t receiving any oxygen at all. At 6:30 a.m., 21-year-old Duncan was declared dead.

Duncan had developed bronchitis which turned into pneumonia. Left untreated, this resulted in a lung infection which—also left untreated—led to sepsis and ultimately killed him.

“Duncan was completely clueless as to how serious his condition was,” says his father Ken Kennedy. “To be fair, we all were. And that’s the nature of sepsis—you just don’t understand how serious it is until it’s too late.”

Since his death just one year ago, Ken has made it a personal goal to help raise awareness about sepsis in any way he can, including using the hashtag #doitforduncan.

“Sepsis is really difficult for doctors to diagnose, so being aware of what your body is telling you is really important,” he says. “If you can recognize the symptoms in yourself or in a friend or family member, that’s a key piece of awareness that I’d like people to have. You need to take an active role in your own health.”