24 year olds don’t get sepsis.
Except they do, as Katie B from Glasgow discovered on 23rd September 2024.
She tells her story here:
I am originally from Lerwick in Shetland and have been an athlete all my life, having swum since the age of 4 and trained and competed since the age of 7. I still love to train and compete now – for Team Shetland – at national and international competitions.
I have a BSc in Sport science and an MSc in Nutrition and now practice full time in Glasgow as a performance nutritionist and also as a sports massage therapist.
In my time off I enjoy travelling to new countries and to other places in Scotland and I love Pilates, coffee, walks, swimming, being outdoors and running. I go home to Shetland as often as I can to see my family and friends.
In 2024, on Sunday 22nd September around 12pm, I went to A&E after NHS 24 advised me to do so for vomiting, diarrhoea, and severe lower abdominal pain. A nurse examined my stomach and took a pregnancy test which was negative. My partner Ben and I asked him several times whether it could be appendicitis but he dismissed our concerns. I was diagnosed instead with gastroenteritis and sent home with paracetamol and an anti-sickness tablet.
That evening my symptoms worsened though, with vomiting, diarrhoea and escalating pain. By the early hours of Monday 23rd I developed chills and disorientation and my nose turned purple/black. Despite fearing that I would be dismissed again, I went back to A&E around 9am the next morning, arriving in a wheelchair as I could barely walk or talk. My nose was necrotic and I was nearly unconscious. After a wait of almost 1.5 hours, with other patients expressing concern and Ben repeatedly seeking help, he directly approached a nurse that he found in the corridor and I was prioritised. Another nurse checked my blood pressure (60/30) and I was then rushed to resus. Tests showed pH 7.1, lactate 13 and, after a CT scan, a ruptured appendix with localised collection and a splenic infarct. I was in septic shock, with E. coli in my blood from bowel perforation. Surgery was delayed until my blood pressure stabilised, as I was deemed unlikely to survive immediate surgery.
Post-surgery, I was admitted to the ICU with complications including Pulmonary oedema and severe oxygen/noradrenaline drop (for which I was intubated on 25th Sept for 15 days); acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) requiring steroids; DIC (low platelets), haemoglobin <70, multiple transfusions; Stage 3 acute kidney injury (requiring 2–3 days of dialysis); a possible cardiac event; a C. diff (Clostridium Difficile) infection on 4th Oct and a tracheostomy, placed on 9th Oct for 6 days causing a small granuloma on my right vocal cord.
Throughout the period in the ICU I was very disoriented so I cannot remember whether I was told I had had sepsis or not, but my first memory is of asking a nurse what the medication she was admitting was for and she mentioned sepsis. I got such a fright. I didn’t know at the time what I know now about sepsis. I knew it was really bad and I thought it was a blood infection. I understand that my family was told immediately in person and that they were extremely concerned. They said that Googling sepsis was one of the scariest things because of how life-threatening they learned it could be. They were worried out of their minds. I don’t think I was fully aware until a doctor told me in HDU when I was stable enough to know everything. I was still so unwell in the hospital though that I didn’t properly take it all in until I was discharged and at home. In hospital I was so focused on getting home and better that I didn’t really think about how ill I had been.
Whilst recovering I experienced PTSD which I still struggle with. I think it’s even more difficult as I am now so healthy and fit again that it almost doesn’t feel like it actually happened.
I know that when Ben told my dad that I was in A&E for the second time and in the state I was, my dad flew from Shetland immediately – he was on the next flight. My dad is always calm in a crisis and I am so grateful he was at the hospital on the day I had to be ventilated, alongside my boyfriend, as this was the scariest day for me. My parents are separated, but my mum and dad mustered together to be by my side 24/7, which 100% helped to get me through. My brother and my sister in-law and my boyfriend’s family also were there everyday in the ICU and without them I would not have managed. My boyfriend Ben is the absolute hero of the hour though, as without him I don’t think I would be here today. He was the one who knew how bad it was from the second I was in pain to the moment I was eventually admitted. I was in ICU for three weeks and HDU for one and I received 10/10 treatment once I was admitted. The doctors and nursing staff at the Aberdeen Royal infirmary really did all that they could and I thank them for that. Plus my friends from Shetland and the ones who were able to visit me in hospital, even my swim coach from Shetland who visited me in hospital.
I think my first reaction when I understood my diagnosis was actually anger at the nurse who had initially mis-diagnosed my symptoms. Once I understood where I was and what had happened and how long I had been there, I just was so focused on getting out and getting healthy again that I was probably more stubborn and determined.
Now I feel lucky and have such a sense of my strength as an individual. I think it has given me more of an appreciation for health and life. Doing what I love and taking control of what I can control. I don’t take a day for granted at all and always pursue my goals to the full. Reading other people’s stories on Sepsis Research FEAT’s website has helped me so much, it makes me feel less alone in recovery and in coming to terms with it all.
I do think that sepsis is very misunderstood by the general public. I’d say 95% of people I have talked to about it didn’t know exactly what sepsis is and how bad it is. I also didn’t understand how quickly it can develop! I still think it’s crazy and that the symptoms of it are so easily missed – it’s scary.
I want to help educate others about sepsis – to share the signs of sepsis, explain how it can be caught early and help people to realise that you know yourself better than anyone and that you should always push to get the help you need when you know you need it. Once I was admitted the reaction of staff was full on – all hands on deck – which just goes to show how bad it was and that we were right in trying so hard to be seen.
Health is all we have. There is a quote from Confucious that goes, ‘A person with health has a thousand problems, but a person without health has only one.’ This is so true and helps my perspective each day – to be grateful for my recovery and always to put my health first.
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Charity comment
Katie’s story is testament to the fact that even young and extremely fit individuals can be susceptible to sepsis and become gravely ill as a result. Her help in raising awareness of that fact is invaluable and we are very grateful to Katie for sharing her account so honestly and in so much detail.
She also highlights the very important point that only you and those close to you can really understand what is your ‘normal’. It is therefore so important – if someone is not acting as you might expect or are showing symptoms that appear worse than any they have ever experienced in the past – that you seek urgent medical attention for them. And ask if what they are experiencing could be the symptoms of sepsis. Katie‘s boyfriend Ben did exactly that and potentially saved her life in the process.
To find out more about the potential symptoms of sepsis and what to do if you spot them visit the awareness of section of this charity website here.