When she broke her arm in July 2022, 62-year-old Lorna Conaghan from Gourock had no idea that the next four months would unfold as they did, nor that sepsis would go on to affect other underlying health conditions. Nor could she have imagined that the awareness she raised would go on to help save the life of another young family member.

Lorna’s story started when she broke her arm badly on 1st July 2022. She had an op a week later to have a plate fitted but had meanwhile also caught COVID from her husband.

With her arm not healing properly after the op, she was told that she would need to have a reverse shoulder replacement. The date for the procedure came through – 30th September – at her local hospital, Inverclyde Royal. On the day she reported for elective surgery she says, ‘I wasn’t feeling good. I thought it was just nerves at the thought of the op and the pain. The doctors clearly didn’t like the look of me, but I begged them to let me get the op.’ 

Lorna was quickly moved from a four-bed room to one with a single bed as it was clear that there was a chance that she might have COVID and would therefore need isolating – happily the test came back negative. Lorna says that she then went into rigors. ‘My leg was “bouncing” and I couldn’t stop it – and I also had a fever.’ she says, ‘My skin was a grey colour.’ She was admitted to the hospital’s HDU less than three hours later.

Lorna was then seen by several consultants. The next day she was told by the consultant in the HDU that she had sepsis but that doctors were not clear as to the source of the infection. ‘I think it was probably touch and go,’ she says, ‘I needed to respond to the meds. And to be honest, I was pretty out of it when they told me – sleeping a lot and, when I was awake, slurring my words.’

Despite Lorna’s limited awareness, it was clear that her family, including her husband of 22 years Charlie, were very worried by the diagnosis and extremely anxious about her prognosis.

As doctors worked to treat Lorna’s sepsis she was given a number of IV antibiotics via a central line in her neck. Scans, x-rays, a CT scan, blood tests, ECG’s and an ultrasound on her kidneys all followed. She was to remain in the HDU for six days in total, with another three on the hospital’s general ward thereafter.

Just four weeks after her discharge, however, Lorna was back at A&E with blood pressure of 40/80 and a heart rate of 33bpm. She was taken into resus within 20 minutes and admitted to the HDU once again with heart block [also known as atrioventricular dissociation]. It transpired that sepsis had affected her kidneys’ processing of prescribed blood pressure medication and that she had a build-up of beta blockers in her system. Her stay in the HDU lasted three days on this occasion with another day on the general ward. At the time of writing she is still having blood tests to check her kidneys.

Shockingly, the family was to suffer another shocking set-back. At the same time as Lorna was dealing with her own experience of sepsis and its after-effects on her other health conditions, ‘we had another sepsis scare in our family.’ she says, ‘Just after I was discharged from hospital, my three year old grandson Alfie had a cold then chickenpox, strep A and then sepsis. His Mum pushed for him to be seen after about an hour at A&E because she knew from what I had described as my symptoms that he was seriously ill.’ Within half an hour of raising the alarm, Alfie was on a ventilator in ITU. He remained on the ventilator and in a critical condition for some time but thankfully went on to make a good recovery.

Lorna says that as a family they are indebted to Glasgow Children’s Hospital for all they did for Alfie. Personally, she says that she is forever grateful to her husband Charlie and all the wonderful staff at the Inverclyde Royal Hospital ‘From the bottom to the top…[they] really helped me through my treatment for sepsis and my recovery. I needed each and every one of them and they all responded magnificently.’

Lorna goes on to say, ‘Now I feel GREAT! I am enjoying my retirement and am back to reading, gardening and walking Kira the dog. 

The GenOMICC project that Sepsis Research FEAT funds is looking at how people’s genes might affect their susceptibility to sepsis. So I just want to share my story to help raise awareness. And I would just say to others – don’t give up, there are some wonderful medics in our NHS.’