Aiyla Mota from Hillingdon in west London was just three years old when she developed a strep A infection. What appeared initially to be a typical childhood sore throat was to go on to have life-changing consequences for Aiyla and her mum Eulanda. Eulanda tells Aiyla’s story here. 

Aiyla’s illness kicked off innocently enough when she developed a sore throat on March 23. She quickly developed other symptoms though including a cough and tummy pain. She wasn’t passing any urine and she was unusually tired. Aiyla’s cough wasn’t major – and when I shone a light in her throat, I couldn’t see anything there. She was only three at the time, so her naps had gone down to twice a week. But she started napping in the daytime. We tried her on the toilet a few times – I kept saying, ‘are you sure you don’t need the toilet?’ – but she genuinely couldn’t wee. 

The next day I was still concerned so I dialled 111 for advice. They told me that unless she had a rash there was no need to take her to hospital. The next day on March 25 Aiyla’s breathing worsened, and she still couldn’t urinate. So I drove her straight to A&E at Hillingdon Hospital in Uxbridge. The triage nurse who saw her first could see how poorly she was and immediately admitted her. The doctors gave her antibiotics through a cannula, but they did nothing to improve her condition and it was at this point that we were told that Aiyla had developed sepsis. Tests had revealed that she had gone into multiple organ failure, including of her lungs and kidneys.   I didn’t know how serious sepsis was but based on the reaction of my sister who is a nurse I knew it was bad. Myself and my family just couldn’t believe this was happening or how when Aiyla had been fine a couple of days previously.

 At 3am the next day, Aiyla was transferred to St Mary’s Hospital, Paddington for kidney dialysis and to drain her lungs of fluid. The ambulance ride felt like a lifetime. Once we got there, they took us straight to intensive care. Doctors kept saying they needed to put her in an induced coma. I asked them whether she was going to wake up if they did that and they told me that she would. I went into the tearoom – I have no idea how long for – and when I came back, she was wired up to all sorts of machines. She had dialysis, feeding tubes, a catheter and ECG stickers. I can’t even describe how I felt in that moment, I was in complete disbelief. 

I never left her side during the three weeks that she was in the coma. Once she came round though and was under observation it became clear that her legs and fingers were not going to recover as they had hoped. I was told the blood flow had been cut off from her legs and arms, to save her vital organs. So the doctors took the devastating decision to amputate both of her legs and five fingers. I couldn’t stop thinking about her future – how this was going to affect her, physically and mentally.  The most important thing was to keep her alive though. 

Aiyla then spent the next three months in hospital before being discharged on June 23rd. During her treatment the hospital were amazing. I see all of them as my new second family – I could not thank them enough. Even now I regularly keep in contact and attend charity events. 

Aiyla celebrated her fourth birthday just two weeks after her discharge with a Frozen-themed party. Three months later, in September, she started mainstream school as planned and is still her usual cheeky and sassy self. She is still having regular rehab, physio and occupational therapy appointments and is using stubbies to walk on. We hope that she will be able to move on to full prosthetic legs once she is more confident. She’s adapted so well – she loves gymnastics, horse riding, ice skating and bowling. We do everything we can for her. Sepsis and strep A haven’t stolen her love for life. It’s her that keeps me together, really.  

I think sharing our story, helping others know the symptoms and making others aware has helped me. If I can help save one person or child I will be happy – I wouldn’t want anyone to go through what Aiyla went through. I hadn’t heard about Sepsis Research FEAT before this but when I did come across the Instagram page it made me sad to read others’ stories. But it also provided me with information that I didn’t know and can now share with others. 

My message to others would be to look out for the symptoms of sepsis, trust your instincts and react fast – every second counts.

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 Strep A as an infection is not new but has been increasingly in the public eye since the COVID 19 pandemic. It is one of a number of illnesses and infections that is particularly prevalent in the winter months. For the majority of people their experience of these illnesses will be relatively straightforward in clinical terms and they will go on to make a speedy recovery. For a small number of others like Aiyla, sepsis can develop as the result of a Strep A infection and the consequences can be devastating. 

You can read other stories of sepsis and Strep A on the Sepsis Research FEAT website here or watch a video made about Strep A in 2022 by Scotland’s clinical director Jason Leitch.