“I’ve had sepsis 12 times in the last five years. Every single time, it’s terrifying.”
Daniela’s career has taken more turns than most. She trained originally as a makeup artist before going to university for the first time, qualifying, and spending more than 20 years working in the NHS – primarily in theatres and anticoagulation. She left the NHS due to her health after the pandemic, though returned to help during it.
At 36, she went back to university – this time as a student, not a healthcare professional – to study Medieval History. She graduated just before her 40th birthday and went on to complete a Master’s, graduating in 2025 at 42, with hopes to begin a PhD. Alongside her academic career, she works as a disability and women’s health advocate, raising awareness of the chronic conditions she lives with, including endometriosis, Primary Immune Deficiency, bladder conditions – and sepsis.
Daniela has a Primary Immune Deficiency, which means she experiences pneumonia or Pyelonephritis (kidney infection) roughly every four to six weeks. In recent years, these infections have become more frequent, partly due to drug-resistant bacteria. She has had 12 episodes of sepsis in the last five years alone.
Two of those episodes happened while she was a student – and came close to derailing her studies altogether.
Final-year exams, and a body in crisis
In June 2022, Daniela was in her final year of university, about to sit her end-of-year exams. She woke up struggling to breathe, with a severe headache and feeling very cold.
“I’m used to feeling unwell day to day with my conditions,” she says. “But this was different.”
An ambulance was called. She was taken straight from to resus, as her heart had gone into SVT (supraventricular tachycardia) – a fast, abnormal heart rhythm that required medication to slow it, along with oxygen. Blood tests confirmed Bronchopneumonia, Pyelonephritis, and COVID-19, occurring together in a patient who is already immunocompromised and lives with the lung condition Bronchiectasis.
“The doctors were very concerned,” Daniela says. She was started on several strong IV antibiotics, high-dose antiviral medication, and oxygen. Because of COVID-19 restrictions, she was isolated, and her husband was unable to visit.
Recovery was slow. It was a long hospital admission, and Daniela was left with post-sepsis syndrome and severe post-viral fatigue, while her existing lung condition worsened.
She sat her final exams anyway.
“I was isolated in hospital, my husband couldn’t visit, and I still had my final exams ahead of me. Sepsis doesn’t wait for a convenient time.”
Three years on, another crisis during her Master’s
Then, in February 2025, Daniela was working on her Master’s thesis. She had been struggling with a UTI for several months that would not respond to antibiotics.
“One day I woke up, and I knew something was very wrong,” she says. “I was in so much pain, exhausted, with a headache, vomiting, and a racing heart.”
She went to her GP, who suspected sepsis and called an ambulance. Around an hour later, in A&E, the diagnosis was confirmed.
“We had caught it just in time,” Daniela says. “If I’d stayed at home any longer, it could have been so much worse.”
She spent two weeks on IV antibiotics before she was back on her feet. She completed her Master’s later that year, graduating as a Medieval Historian.
Living with the fear of sepsis that never fully goes away
Despite having experienced sepsis more than a dozen times, Daniela says it never becomes easier to hear the diagnosis:
“Nothing can prepare you to hear those words again. For me, it’s always: what if the antibiotics don’t work this time? What if they can’t help me? I feel paralysed with fear, and such a horrible feeling of anxiety.”
Her family has learned to adapt to the recurring crises in their own ways. Her mother, who has been through this many times with her, has become practised at asking doctors directly what the plan is and sharing what has helped in the past. Her husband, by contrast, tends to go quiet with worry until Daniela is through the other side. “He always says he feels so helpless,” she says.
Ongoing treatment, and a hard-won outlook
Daniela remains on daily antibiotics to try to prevent further episodes, and she continues to live with post-sepsis syndrome and fatigue. Each hospital admission for sepsis has typically lasted two to four weeks, involving IV antibiotics, antivirals, oxygen, and medication to support her heart, blood pressure and fluid balance.
“When I was diagnosed during my degree, I was concerned I wouldn’t be able to finish the course,” she says. “I felt so poorly I couldn’t imagine having the strength to continue and finish in time.”
Her outlook has shifted with experience. “I accept that sepsis is a regular threat I face because of my chronic conditions, and that I have to watch for symptoms,” she says. “But I’m also reassured that with a timely response – getting to hospital and starting treatment quickly – I have the best shot at beating it. I’m proud to have graduated despite it all, and to have become a historian.”
Why Daniela is sharing her story
Daniela already knew about Sepsis Research FEAT before agreeing to share her story, and says she has found the charity’s content informative. Her motivation for speaking out is straightforward:
“I wish to raise awareness. If you feel something is not right, trust your gut instinct and get seen by a medical professional. Ask the question – could this be sepsis?”
Her story sits alongside other student sepsis cases as a reminder that sepsis does not discriminate. It can strike during Freshers’ Week in someone who has never been seriously ill before. It can also strike repeatedly, in someone who knows the warning signs intimately and is still not immune to its dangers.
Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) – the growing threat
Daniela’s experience points to one of the most urgent challenges in sepsis care today: antimicrobial resistance (AMR). Her infections have become more frequent in recent years, partly because the bacteria causing them no longer reliably respond to standard antibiotics – a pattern playing out across the NHS more broadly. Following a two-year partnership with the James Lind Alliance, Sepsis Research FEAT identified AMR and the urgent need for new treatment options beyond antibiotics as one of the UK’s top three sepsis research priorities, based on nearly 900 questions submitted by survivors, bereaved families and frontline clinicians.
The charity is already funding work in this space: researchers at Imperial College London, led by Dr Kenny Malpartida Cardenas and backed by Sepsis Research FEAT and Rosetrees, are developing a low-cost, paper-based test that can detect both bacterial bloodstream infections and antibiotic resistance in under an hour. A parallel project at the University of Cambridge is developing a portable, nanoparticle-based blood test that delivers results in just 10 minutes – including detection of antimicrobial resistance – with the potential to be used directly in ambulances or emergency departments.
For Daniela, whose infections have become harder to treat over time, this kind of research isn’t abstract. Faster identification of resistant bacteria could directly shape how quickly and effectively her next episode is treated.
Life after sepsis – the recovery that doesn’t end at discharge
Surviving sepsis is only one step in Daniela’s journey. She continues to live with post-sepsis syndrome years after her worst episodes – persistent fatigue and lingering effects that are still not widely understood.
Sepsis Research FEAT is funding research into exactly this gap. Professor Joanne McPeake at the University of Cambridge and Professor Nazir Lone at the University of Edinburgh are among the researchers studying long-term outcomes following sepsis, working directly with survivors, carers and clinicians to understand what recovery actually looks like and where support is currently falling short.
Their research, co-produced with people who have lived through sepsis, has helped establish post-sepsis syndrome as one of the highest priorities in sepsis research today, ranking second only to improving diagnosis.
“As a historian, I understand the value of evidence,” Daniela says adding:
“The evidence is clear: we’re not doing enough to support people after they leave hospital. The fatigue, the anxiety, the sense that your body isn’t something you can fully rely on anymore… it doesn’t disappear when you’re discharged. We need research that takes that seriously.”
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Charity Comment:
Sepsis Research FEAT is so grateful to Daniela for sharing her story with Sepsis Research FEAT as part of its student sepsis awareness campaign. If you are a student who has suffered with sepsis and would like to share your story, please get in touch. Raising awareness of sepsis saves lives.