Rory Staunton at age 11
By Ray O’Hanlon
Five years after his tragic death as a result of sepsis, the name of Rory Staunton has not faded from public memory.
Far from it.
Rory’s name has become synonymous with a public health education campaign that has raised awareness of sepsis to life saving levels.
And while it would be impossible to put an exact figure on the number of people who are alive as a result of the campaign by the Rory Staunton Foundation, it is fair to say that it is not a small one.
Indeed, it could well number in the hundreds, if not thousands.
Rory, whose short life was lived in Queens, New York, died five years ago this month at age 12 after sepsis was diagnosed only at a point when treatment had no effect.
He had contracted the infection from a seemingly innocuous cut sustained in his school gym.
Four days later, Rory was dead as a result of septic shock.
This despite the fact that he was admitted to a hospital in a city that boasts the very highest level of medical treatment anywhere in the world.
Sepsis has been described as the leading cause of death of people admitted to hospital.
It results from the body’s immune system reacting to infection to such a high degree that the result is toxic shock.
Rory, son of Orlaith and Ciaran, brother of Kathleen, was eulogized at a memorial service at St. Mary’s Winfield Church in Woodside, Queens on Holy Thursday that year, 2012.
The funeral Mass was an extraordinary event, its profound sadness matched by the massive outpouring of emotion and support for the Staunton family from a community that could scarcely believe that a 12-year-old boy could die from an infection caused by a cut sustained during a basketball game.
The Queens gathering drew people from across the Irish and Irish American community, from across the Atlantic and the United States.
The huge congregation included Congressman Joe Crowley and then City Council Speaker Christine Quinn.
It included many who had been in the front lines of the immigration reform campaign, Rory’s father, Ciaran, being the most public voice of the Irish Lobby for Immigration Reform.
Rory was flown to Ireland on Good Friday for burial, his funeral taking place on Easter Monday under an Irish sky that was as gray as the New York sky was blue just a few days before.
The funeral Mass, in Drogheda, was attended by, among many others, Taoiseach Enda Kenny, Sinn Féin leader Gerry Adams, and the North’s then Deputy First Minister, Martin McGuinness.
Many fine words were spoken about a young boy who had his life taken away by a condition that was curable when treated in time.
After the fine words came the hard questions.
And there were quite a few of those.
They were posed by Rory’s family and others who quickly identified a significant failing in an area of healthcare where fatality was not an inevitability.
Rory’s parents, Orlaith from County Louth and Ciaran from County Mayo, set about making sure that their son’s fate would not befall others.
And so, the Rory Staunton Foundation was born, its aim to see the creation and codifying of a set of protocols designed to ensure that sepsis was diagnosed rapidly so that proper life-saving treatment could be applied in time.
The Stauntons contacted politicians, gave numerous interviews in print and on TV, and took to the internet to promote the foundation’s case, this even as they grieved the loss of their son.
The response, at least in New York State, was a rapid one.
Early in 2013, Governor Andrew Cuomo announced that all hospitals in New York State would be required to adopt evidence-based protocols, known as “Rory's Regulations” for the early diagnosis and treatment of sepsis. The regulations took effect the following year.
The Stauntons want to see Rory’s Regulations applied right across the United States.
"We're not looking for a cure for sepsis, we're looking for awareness. Our foundation looks to change that, and to reflect how everyone affected in America is being treated,” said Ciaran Staunton.
Given what the foundation has achieved to date there is little reason to doubt that this ultimate goal will be someday achieved.
The work continues, however, and for their sustained efforts in their son’s memory Ciaran and Orlaith are being honored at the upcoming Irish Echo Community Champions Awards set for May 5th.
