Carl Mullan shares warning after shock sepsis diagnosis

Radio presenter Carl Mullan opened up about his experience with sepsis.

The radio host urged his followers to always seek medical advice if they are concerned about symptoms.

He admitted that he "was doing the typical Irish thing of not wanting to bother a doctor or make a big deal of it."

He brushed it off until he looked in the back of his throat and it was covered in white and yellow patches.

Carl shared: "It all started a few years ago when I got a sore throat. That was it, very simple - a sore throat."

"It was covered in white and yellow patches, and it was just so raw and so painful. It was awful."

“I probably shouldn’t have let it get to the point that it did, and I should have gone back to the doctor sooner. I was in so much pain, I went back to the doctor who sent me immediately to A&E because it was in such a bad way," he shared.

Carl was seen straight away when he got to A&E, and he said the doctor audibly gasped when he saw the back of his throat.

His medical team took blood and gave him painkillers and antibiotics.

"A couple of hours later, the doctor came back and sat me down, and was like ‘you’re really lucky you came into hospital when you did. Why? You’re in the early stages of sepsis."

Carl said a very normal infection "was actually turning into a very dangerous situation because with sepsis, you can get very sick, very quickly."

"If you don’t treat it quickly, you can go into organ failure, and ultimately, it can be fatal," he warned

"The main point here is that I had NO CLUE that what started out as a relatively straightforward infection could turn into sepsis.

"I was lucky the doctor sent me to A&E when he did, and thankfully, I was all good after a couple of days."

What are the signs of sepsis to look out for?

If you or someone you know has an infection and are displaying the following symptoms, then you should seek medical care immediately.

The key signs include:

• a high temperature (38 degrees Celsius or above)
• low body temperature (below 36 degrees Celsius)
• chills and shivering
• a fast heartbeat
• problems with or changes to your breathing
• feeling or acting differently from normal
• vomiting
• a headache
• feeling unwell

Doctors have stressed that identifying sepsis can be tricky as the symptoms appear in other conditions.

However, sepsis can only develop if you already have an infection.

People should seek urgent medical help even if they’re displaying one of the above symptoms and they have an infection.