“The worst part was that feeling of helplessness.”
Andres was 12 years old and had always been healthy up until then. Then he came down with pneumonia—and a few days later, he was in an induced coma with sepsis.
In 2023, Estefanía Zardon traveled to Paris with her four sons to attend a soccer game. During their stay, 12-year-old Andres fell ill. Estefanía and her three other sons also became ill. At first, it all looked like a common infection.
Andres had a fever, a red, sore throat, and flu-like symptoms. He was feeling very ill. Since the family was still in Paris, his mother took him to the hospital. There, he was initially diagnosed with the flu. But Andres didn’t get any better. By the time the family returned home to Switzerland on Saturday, he was already seriously ill. That night, he began to hallucinate. “He told me I wasn’t his mother,” Estefanía recalls. “That’s when I knew something was very, very wrong.” Early Sunday morning, Andres’s father took him to the hospital. The doctors diagnosed severe pneumonia affecting both lungs.
Suddenly, everything happens very quickly
Andres had to be transferred to the pediatric intensive care unit at another hospital. His condition continued to deteriorate. He was placed in an induced coma as early as Sunday afternoon. The pneumonia had led to sepsis—a dangerous overreaction of the body to an infection.
Andres needed mechanical support for his lungs and circulation via ECMO— a life-support system that temporarily supports the lungs by supplying oxygen to the blood and removing carbon dioxide. An injury occurred while he was being connected to the machine. As a result, Andres had to undergo additional heart and lung surgery.
Estefanía Zardon was still sick herself and couldn’t be with her son during the first week. From a distance, it was hard for her to grasp just how serious his condition really was. “I thought he was in the hospital and everything would be fine again,” says the 54-year-old. Andres’s father stayed with him during that time. A week later, the medical team explained to the parents that Andres would have to start breathing on his own again. Otherwise, there would be no further treatment options. Only then did Estefanía realize how critical his condition was. “The worst part was that feeling of helplessness,” she says.
Andres remained in a coma for three weeks. After waking up, he had to stay in the intensive care unit due to kidney problems and delirium. In total, he spent about nine weeks in the hospital. At the time, Estefanía knew very little about sepsis. She had heard the term before, but she hadn’t realized how quickly an infection could turn into a life-threatening situation. “I wish I had known more about it. Maybe I would have acted sooner.”
Learning to Walk Again
Once the acute phase of the illness had passed, Andres began a long road to recovery. He spent nearly a month in rehabilitation. He had lost a lot of weight and had to learn to walk again.
At first, Andres got exhausted very quickly. When he returned to school a month after completing rehabilitation, he could initially only manage half-days. The sepsis also left visible marks: Andres lost a lot of his hair. The experience was so stressful for Estefanía that she also began losing her hair. Their hair eventually grew back.
Today, Andres is 15 years old, attends high school, and is once again leading a largely normal life. He no longer suffers from fatigue or difficulty concentrating. However, he still has to limit his physical activity. Andres has a doctor’s note and only participates in activities he feels confident doing. At high altitudes, he needs supplemental oxygen. The scars from his surgeries have also remained. “He’s handling it well. He’s accepted it,” says Estefanía Zardon.
The fear of a new infection
Andres’ illness has changed family life. Above all, the worry that he might become seriously ill again—and the fear of another bout of sepsis—still haunts the family to this day. Just a few weeks ago, Andres had to spend several days in the hospital again due to a severe infection.
His immune system was thoroughly examined. The tests revealed no abnormalities or evidence of a genetic cause that could explain his sepsis. Nevertheless, the family is especially vigilant whenever Andres gets sick. The experience has changed Estefania Zardon’s perspective on infections. “Sepsis can affect anyone—even someone who is completely healthy. And it can happen very quickly.”
A Diary for Looking Back
Andres himself has no memory of the weeks he spent in an induced coma. His mother, however, recorded much of what happened during that time. “The nursing staff was very caring and supportive,” she recalls. Writing also helped her process what she had been through.
After falling ill, Andres kept asking himself why this had happened to him of all people. A friend of Estefania Zardon’s offered the family a different perspective at the time: Perhaps there would never be an answer to the question “Why?” Instead, they could ask themselves, “What’s the point?” This thought helped Andres come to terms with what he had been through. He was able to focus more on what he could take away from this experience and what he could make of it.
For Andres, this means helping others by sharing his story and raising awareness about sepsis. For Estefania, too, sharing her story is a way to help others learn from what happened to her family.
Andres ist heute wieder mitten im Leben. Die Sepsis hat Spuren hinterlassen. Doch seinen Alltag bestimmt sie nicht mehr.