Self-employed and in her spare time a lover of walking, cycling, swimming, skiing and all things outdoors, Jane Anderson was a previously fit and healthy 57-year-old living on the outskirts of Edinburgh. As she prepared to return to work after the new year break in January of 2022, things changed dramatically. She was to spend the next three days alone and unconscious at home.
Jane tells the story of what happened here through two social media posts that she wrote at the time.
Facebook, Thursday January 13th 2022
It’s so great to be alive.
I just want to post my story for sepsis awareness and also to say please everyone keep an eye on your neighbours – young and old – as all those living alone are vulnerable.
Last Tuesday 4th Jan was a perfectly normal day, getting ready to return to work on Wednesday. All was good until I started getting the chills at 10pm. So, I decided to head to bed early with an extra duvet and hot water bottle and didn’t think any more of it until I was violently sick at 2am.
The rest is a bit of a blur with confusion, dizziness and just a desperate need to sleep. I drifted in and out of consciousness and crawled downstairs two or three times over the course of Wednesday and Thursday just to open the back door and let Leila (my dog) out. By late Thursday/Friday, I was completely unconscious until thankfully a friend, Kate, had become increasingly worried by my lack of communication and walked up to my house. Along with neighbours, they decided to call the police. Thankfully I was in hospital by 4:30pm on Friday with a temperature of 40 degrees and lots of confusion. All I wanted to do was sleep.
Treatment began with a concoction of IV drugs and a team of professionals I can simply say I’m in awe of. I stabilised on Saturday morning and then went downhill again on Saturday afternoon, but they finally stabilised me again in the evening. Both doctors told me they hadn’t expected a good outcome. They’re keeping a close eye on me and continuing with the meds. But fingers crossed I’ll be able to go home at the weekend or early next week.
The idea of my brother and sister organising my funeral so soon after Mum’s doesn’t bear thinking about but could have been a total reality. [Jane had lost her mum, to whom she was extremely close, very suddenly in April 2021]. The entire experience has been totally terrifying.
Please check on friends and family who live alone. Thanks so much to the fabulous staff at the Western and for the most amazing neighbours Kelly, Robert and Kate at 24 (And an especially big thank you to Kate Kendal).
PS One of the nurses from Saturday night came in to change my IV meds and she had a chat. She was quite emotional saying how happy she is that I’m much better. She said, ‘In this job you have to switch off when you go home. But there are occasions when you just can’t stop thinking about a patient outside work and on your days off.’ And I’ve been one of those patients. She said the nurses in the staff room were all chatting about the lady in Room 11 saying how sad it was to see someone so young so ill. When she came back on shift that day she was just hoping I’d pulled through.
PPS typing is not easy. It’s taken about three days to type this and then copy and paste it from notes.
Facebook, Friday March 4th 2022
I had a call last week to say they finally had a positive result from my blood cultures and the bacterium found at Great Ormond Street is incredibly rare and called Capnocytophaga Canimorsus…it’s found in the saliva of up to 80% of healthy dogs and cats…Usually infection in humans is caused by bites, but in my case, they/I am totally baffled because I’ve never had a dog or cat bite and have a dog that doesn’t even lick…So I’m a total mystery and unbelievably lucky.
We possibly all just need to be extra careful with any cuts and wounds, even though I wasn’t aware I had any… It’s a miracle I survived three days unconscious at home and I’ll never understand how I did?! I’m so, so unlucky to have had such serious sepsis caused by this but also incredibly lucky to have survived.
Take care of everyone and never take tomorrow for granted.
Months later Jane added, ‘It took a while to sink in when I received the diagnosis of sepsis from the consultant in Infectious diseases at the Western the day before I was discharged. I didn’t have the usual symptoms so they weren’t sure what was wrong at first. It was several weeks before I realised how seriously ill I’d been and how lucky I was to have survived. My family was similarly shocked. It was terrifying that this could happen so quickly to a healthy person with no warning.
My life mission now is to spread awareness – sepsis awareness is so important to me! I would just advise others to be aware and please keep an eye on anyone – of any age – living alone.