It is just nine months since Beth B, 46, from Hartley Wintney near Basingstoke had what she thought was a fairly innocuous winter cold. Her story since has been both terrifying and extraordinary. It is a testament to huge strength and resilience in the face of a terrifying illness and its aftermath. This spirit has spurred Beth on to share her story to help raise awareness and help prevent others from suffering the same ordeal. 

Beth explains what happened here. 

It all began on Christmas Eve last year when my mum & I both had colds and she wasn’t feeling well enough to travel to my house for Christmas. My sisters Liza & Andrea live near mum so the plans were changed to have Christmas at Liza’s instead. After a day of help from Andrea, moving everything to Newbury, I spent the night at her house on Christmas Eve. It was a decision which saved my life.  

On the evening of Christmas Eve, I had developed an agonizing pain in my side, and by Christmas morning had started vomiting blue liquid. Andrea called 111 in the early hours of Christmas morning, and they sent an ambulance to her house which blue lighted me straight to Basingstoke A&E. I was diagnosed with flu and pneumonia but was soon moved to resus (having not passed any urine for 24hrs) with what I now know was suspected kidney failure. Doctors advised Andrea that things were looking a great deal more serious than they first suspected. It was then that she called my identical twin sister Liza and told her that she thought she should get to Basingstoke hospital as soon as possible.  By Boxing Day the decision was taken to put me into a medically induced coma. All of my vital organs had failed, I wasn’t responding to life support and my family were told to prepare for the worst. 

I was transferred to St. Thomas Hospital in London where I was put on an ECMO machine. The doctors revealed that as well as flu and pneumonia, I had a severe bacterial infection, Strep A, and had developed sepsis. 

I’d missed Christmas and New Year’s and when I regained consciousness it was such a lot to take in. I was told that my legs, and possibly my hands, might need to be amputated. I hadn’t spoken for six weeks, and my first words upon seeing my twin sister Liza and stepdaughter Catty were: ‘Yay! Hello, I love you!” My family & friends were traumatized though. My family (including my best friend Shelley) had been by my bedside the whole time willing me to pull through. Andrea had kept a diary of those six weeks which was later really helpful for me to process what I’d missed. 

In February, I underwent surgery to remove both of my legs below the knee and an additional operation to repair damage to my right lung. The first win came a few weeks later when I was advised that the permanent port that had been fitted in my chest for me to receive dialysis on my kidneys could be removed. Since my amputations my kidneys had completely rejuvenated, and I would no longer have to travel for hours three times a week to Portsmouth for dialysis. In April, I had my thumb and most of my fingers removed on my right hand, as well as all of the fingertips on my left.. Fantastic Physios and a punishing gym schedule helped me to walk with only one stick outside of the bars, just five days after getting my prosthetic legs. My four-year-old twin nephews have always referred to my lower limbs as my mini legs and now they know that these are hidden inside my bionic legs!  They keep me smiling. I realise how lucky I am to have such supportive family and friends. There were only a few days in my entire time in hospital that I didn’t have at least one visitor and that was so vital for my mental health. 

I spent seven months in hospital. Finally in July 2023 I was discharged. In total I had been moved around eight different hospitals. Learning to adapt to living at home again and having lost my job as a result of my employer going into liquidation whilst I was in hospital means that there are a huge number of ongoing challenges to overcome. My family have set up a fundraising page for my future needs, which has been phenomenal, but my passion for the future is helping to spread awareness of sepsis. Neither myself, my friends or my family really knew anything about sepsis. Yet within 24hrs I was fighting for my life and have been left with life changing injuries as a result. If this can happen to me, it really can happen to anyone. It really is that scary and is therefore vital that people are aware and can recognise the symptoms so that others don’t end up in the same situation that I have. Better still, thanks to the work of Sepsis Research FEAT, funds donated mean that there may one day be a cure for this colossally dangerous condition.