Actor Jason Watkins has revealed that he used getting into character for projects as a coping mechanism after his daughter Maude’s tragic death from sepsis.
The actor, 61, and wife Clara Francis sadly lost their daughter in 2011 after she developed a respiratory infection and subsequently sepsis. She was two years old.
Jason found Maude, who had been suffering from flu, dead in her bed on New Year’s Day morning. Despite two hospital visits, her flu symptoms masked the sepsis and she went undiagnosed.
Speaking on Wednesday’s Good Morning Britain he told how acting was a way to help him cope with his grief.
He explained: ‘I used to just go into a corner and try and stay in character and I’d hang onto the first thought I would think my character would have.
Tough: Actor Jason Watkins has revealed that he used getting into character for a project as a coping mechanism after his daughter Maude’s tragic death from sepsis
Tragic: The actor, 61, and wife Clara Francis sadly lost their daughter in 2011 after she developed a respiratory infection and subsequently sepsis. She was two years old
‘Sometimes I have done the character for so long and I can go straight into it other times I have to take a minute.
‘When we lost her it was sometimes good to go into work and play a character whereas my wife was just at home.’
Since her death Jason has worked hard to raise awareness about sepsis and in September backed the campaign to allow parents to seek urgent second opinion in A&E as he called for change in how patients are diagnosed
It came after Health Secretary Steve Barclay pledged he will look at calls for the campaign – ‘Martha’s rule’ – following the death of 13-year-old Martha Mills who died of sepsis after failures in her treatment at King’s College Hospital.
Speaking to co–co-presenters Susanna Reid and Richard Madeley, he added: ‘It was a real body-blow to think that, just a few weeks ago, the Ombudsman’s report on sepsis care said that nothing had really changed. So I took it really personally.
‘I had a couple of really difficult days because you feel lost. I felt a bit like a victim again – of sepsis and for parents who have lost loved ones.
‘Because people who have lost loved ones feel that. You feel that fate has dealt you a horrific blow.’
He added: ‘I think with an infant in A&E it’s a complex picture and it’s hard to rule out but that’s no excuse.
‘As a parent you have to think could it be sepsis, ask your doctor if they have a chest infection and rule that out first.
Scary: Despite two hospital visits, her flu symptoms masked the sepsis and she went undiagnosed
Difficult: Speaking on Wednesday’s Good Morning Britain he told how acting was a way to help him cope with his grief
Distraction: He said: ‘When we lost her it was sometimes good to go into work and play a character whereas my wife was just at home’
‘Martha’s rule is a brilliant way to remind parents you know your child. It’s parental instinct. I think the government need to step up.
‘It’s still here and it needs us a society to understand people are dying and it is a big problem. We need to address it.’
In September Jason backed a campaign calling for parents to be allowed to seek a second opinion over a diagnosis in A&E.
In an interview with the BBC, The Crown actor said: ‘Knowing your own child, as Merope [Martha’s mother] knew Martha so well, she knew that she was ill, and so it’s that instinct that is so important.
‘A parent’s instinct of how well or ill a child is should always be listened to.
‘I think what’s frustrating in the case of sepsis is that it is preventable, and that is why it leaves parents so devastated and confused and angry.
‘We think there are around 12,000 preventable deaths.’
He added: ‘On World Sepsis Day, which is today, this is a time to really focus minds on the way that we diagnose people arriving in A&E in the context of sepsis.’
The star described Maud, who died in 2011, as a ‘bubbly child’ who was full of confidence and liked to sing on the bus.
Watkins has joined forces with the UK Sepsis Trust to help raise awareness of the condition among the public and doctors.
Maud developed a chest infection, which was treated by her doctor with medication around the new year.
After her condition did not improve, Jason and Clara took her to A&E, where they were told she had a bad cold and croup before being discharged.
Maud died at home later that night.
It was only discovered later that she had developed sepsis, a life-threatening reaction to an infection that happens when the immune system overreacts and starts to damage the body’s own tissues and organs.
‘She was an amazing girl,’ said Jason.
‘She sang a lot. We used to get on the bus and she used to sing all the time in her pram.
‘She was just very bubbly and had a sense of humour and had confidence and directness about her.
‘She was wonderful. It’s really heartbreaking that as our daughter Betty grows up she hasn’t got her sister to grow up with and all the things Betty is doing Maude won’t be able to do.
‘My memories of her are often embroiled and mixed with the feelings of loss.’
Jason said that since making the documentary Jason & Clara: In Memory of Maude, which aired earlier this year and has been nominated for a Welsh Bafta, he has turned his attention to remembering ‘all the happy times’.
He said more must be done to make sure doctors in the UK get regular sepsis training to remind them of the range of symptoms.
He also called for better clinical practice in the way people are diagnosed with sepsis.
‘The idea that sepsis has to be ruled out first,’ he said.
‘My thinking is that the diagnosis, particularly of children that arrive in A&E, needs to be looked at. Sepsis is a difficult thing to diagnose and one’s default really should be to rule it out first.
‘Sepsis should be at the top of everyone’s list.’
Asked if Maude might still be alive if the default position then was to rule out sepsis first, he said: ‘If sepsis had been at the top of the flagpole (when we took Maude into A&E), then she would have remained in hospital.
‘Do I think she could have survived? I think if it was today that the hospital trust had the profile that some hospitals have of sepsis, I would say yes, because then, you know, she would have been assessed for sepsis and continued to have been assessed throughout her time in the hospital.’
Change: Since her death Jason has worked hard to raise awareness about sepsis and in September backed the campaign to allow parents to seek urgent second opinion in hospital
Grief: Eleven years after her sudden death, the couple filmed a documentary titled Jason & Clara: In Memory of Maudie, where discussed their grief battle
Dr Ron Daniels, founder and joint chief executive of the UK Sepsis Trust, said doctors should have a ‘high index of suspicion’ about sepsis.
He also called for more awareness among the general public so they are confident to ask health professionals: ‘Could it be sepsis?’
He said: ‘If there’s a risk of sepsis, it can present in so many different ways, so clinicians need to have a high index of suspicion. They need to look for sepsis and really be alert.
‘To get this right demands that we have this partnership between the public who asks that question – could it be sepsis? – and health professionals who think sepsis.’
