"If only someone is warned by our story, my goal is achieved"
When eight-year-old Vera* suddenly developed a high fever, her parents thought she had the flu. A few hours later, the girl was fighting for her life in the intensive care unit. A bacterial infection had led to sepsis. Her father, Ujkan Ahmetaj, recounts how he experienced that time.
We meet Ujkan Ahmetaj at the Children’s Hospital in Zurich after his daughter’s follow-up appointment. It is the place where Vera narrowly escaped death a few months ago. A place where everything comes together: exhaustion, grief, memories, and gratitude.
It was early February 2025 when the events began. Eight-year-old Vera developed a fever in the early morning and her mother did what they always did: Fever suppositories, cool her feet, wait and see. “After an hour she was better again,” remembers Ujkan Ahmetaj. The pediatrician suspected flu, which sounded reassuring at first.
But later that day, Vera’s condition suddenly deteriorated significantly. “She could no longer stand and vomited. I was in Bern on business that day. When I finally got home, she couldn’t even lift her head.” On the journey to the University Children’s Hospital in Basel, he kept talking to her. “I asked her to tell me something, but at some point she stopped answering.”
At the hospital, the doctors diagnosed her with sepsis, caused by a bacterial infection with group A streptococci. Vera was given a breathing tube and infusions, but her circulation continued to collapse. “The next morning, they told us there was nothing more they could do for her,” her father says quietly.
Hope and fear
There was one last chance for Vera: the heart-lung machine. This therapy is only offered at a few hospital centers with the corresponding number of cases. The eight-year-old therefore had to be transferred to Zurich as an emergency. “Her hands and feet were almost black, her body was freezing cold and very swollen,” her father recalls. When Vera was connected to the machine, Ujkan Ahmetaj hardly recognized his daughter. “Only the plaited plait that a nurse had made for her in Basel reminded me of her. I held this plait in my hand at night. That was the only thing I had left.”
After a week, Vera’s heart began to beat again on its own. After seven weeks in the intensive care unit, she was transferred to the rehabilitation clinic. She had to relearn many things: sitting, walking, speaking. Fortunately, no amputation was necessary.
Since then, follow-up examinations have been part of her daily routine. Vera has learned a lot again, but her life and that of her family have changed. “Experiences like this shape you forever,” says Ujkan Ahmetaj.
What is sepsis?
Sepsis is a life-threatening emergency that occurs when the body’s own immune response to an infection damages its own tissue and organs. Without early detection and treatment, it can progress rapidly, lead to organ failure and septic shock and be fatal. Sepsis is one of the most common causes of preventable mortality and morbidity worldwide.
The fear remains
Vera has been back at home and attending school for about two months now. She walks with a slight limp and still has problems with her right hand. “But otherwise she’s back to being the happy child she was before,” says her father. However, the experience has not let him go. “I often put my hand on her chest in the middle of the night and feel her heartbeat. Then I tell myself that everything is fine right now.”
Today, a few months later, he still finds it difficult to comprehend what he has experienced. But alongside the exhaustion, gratitude prevails. “I don’t know all the names of the many people who looked after Vera day and night,” he says. “But I will never forget their faces.”
Before Vera fell ill, Ujkan Ahmetaj had never heard of sepsis, otherwise he would have reacted more quickly. “If only someone is alerted by our story and goes to hospital an hour earlier, I will have achieved my goal.”
*Name changed
