Man who had near-death sepsis experience details the warning signs he noticed
A former League of Ireland player and sepsis ambassador has urged people not to shy away from seeking medical help after he says he was moments from death after contracting the condition.
Robbie Horgan was within hours of his life, ending with a diagnosis of double pneumonia, influenza A and sepsis back in 2019.
As the Shamrock Rovers goalkeeper and former Drogheda Town and Drogheda United manager, he claimed in an interview which was released today (August 28) on Ireland AM that it was only because of his wife and daughter’s insistence that he sought help at A&E.
He also said that thanks to his athletic past, he was able to survive the sepsis after being taken into an intensive care unit and put in an induced coma.
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Explaining to the hosts as they focused on the condition’s awareness and symptoms, he said he initially 'just thought I had a flu’ because it 'was that time of year’ and he was prone to getting ‘them quite regularly’.
However, because he wasn’t ‘feeling great’, he visited his healthcare provider who ‘gave me antibiotics and cough bottles’ and inhalers and sent him home.
But he explained his wife wasn’t on the same page.
Horgan revealed she ‘didn't think I was getting any better, you know, in the next couple of days.’
So, he ended up going back to his care provider and ordered a chest X-ray because of the severity of his coughing.
However, it was in the days waiting for the test results to come back that he ‘just got considerably worse’. Despite this, he admitted to being ‘very stubborn’ because he’s ‘a man and I thought it was the man flu.’
He revealed that his wife ‘begged’ him to go back to Accident and Emergency and he ‘didn't want to go’.
“But one of the symptoms of sepsis, which I found out later on, is that you just feel like dying. That was the way I felt as the days went by,” Horgan said.
Horgan said the situation changed only after his daughter, who was six months pregnant at the time, also urged him to seek help.
He said he walked down the stairs afterwards, and it took him ‘30 minutes’ to get down each step because of his condition.
Horgan explained: “So, shortness of breath, all the other signs that I didn't know about - but they knew in the hospital.”
The ex-footballer said that at the hospital, ‘as soon as they [hospital staff] saw me, they realized that there was something serious wrong,” and he was soon placed in a coma.
In an interview with The Sun back in 2023, he urged: “Trust your instincts. If you feel that sick, get help. Don’t think you are taking up the valuable time of doctors and nurses who could be saving the life of someone else. It could be your life they are saving.”
The dad-of-five said at the time he ‘couldn’t string two words together’ due to the severity of his shortness of breath.
He said: “My wife Suzanne wanted me to go to the emergency department. But the stubborn mule that I was said there is no way I’m queuing up in ED just to get another bloody x-ray.
“I said I’d keep taking the prescribed medication and I’d be fine.”
Thankfully, he sought help.
Britt Jones