Acknowledgements
This paper is dedicated to the memory of Mr. Rocco Rasulo, who died recently, a long-term sepsis survivor.

Funding
Not applicable.

Availability of data and materials
Data sharing not applicable to this article as no datasets were generated or analyzed during the current study.

Authors’ contributions
FAR and NL conceptualized and drafted the manuscript. GB, WEE, AM, PP reviewed and were involved in discussing and editing the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

Competing interests
The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

Consent for publication
The consent was obtained by the next of kin (son).

Ethics approval and consent to participate
Not applicable.