Mother of two Katrina Hollis from Wallasey in Merseyside has the endocrine disorder Addison’s disease. She therefore assumed that that was the cause of the symptoms she started to experience in March 2019. 

Katrina had been feeling unwell for a few days. She went to the bingo as usual but came home and went to bed early. She knew that she wasn’t feeling too good but thought it was an Addison’s issue. She says that she woke up feeling so cold – ‘freezing’ – and just couldn’t get warm in bed. She did fall asleep again but when she woke didn’t know who or where she was. Katrina lives on her own but says that, despite her confusion, she somehow realised that a picture on the wall was of someone that she needed to get in touch with. She managed to phone that person and told them that she wasn’t feeling well and that they needed to come round quickly. ‘I found out later that it was my son that I had called’, she says.

Katrina’s son Kevin came straight away, saw how unwell she was and thankfully immediately called 999. Katrina describes the paramedics as fantastic. They were quick to realise what had happened and how seriously ill she was. They immediately blue-lighted Katrina to Arrowe Park Hospital on the Wirral – her local hospital. ‘It felt like I was in the emergency room for ages. At some stage though somebody told me that I was really poorly, that my kidneys were failing and that I had pneumonia’, she says. A DNR (an instruction not to attempt the resuscitation of a terminally ill patient after cardiac arrest in hospital) was agreed but Katrina says that this only made her more determined to get better. 

It wasn’t until later the next day on the ward that she was told by a doctor on his rounds that she had sepsis. Again she felt really confused by the news as she was struggling to understand what was going on and how unwell she was. The doctors were obviously very concerned, however. Having had chemotherapy for breast cancer years before Katrina says that her veins were ‘not good’ and she therefore ended up with a PICC line (peripherally inserted central catheter – a long, thin tube inserted through a vein in the arm or leg and passed through to the larger veins near the heart).

Katrina’s family were forced to sit and watch her go downhill. ‘I think they were just really sad as they felt that they couldn’t help me.’ Katrina fought hard though and after two weeks on various different antibiotics the doctors told her that she could go home. She says that the doctors at hospital and the nurses were fantastic. However, ‘They told me that they had had their doubts I would ever make it – it was a very upsetting time for me and my family’.

Whilst Katrina no longer requires ongoing treatment for sepsis, she does for Addison’s. She describes her outlook when she was diagnosed with sepsis as very poor – hence the DNR. ‘It took me a long time to recover – particularly because of the Addison’s – but my outlook has definitely improved.

I am so grateful that I was able to phone my son that night even though I didn’t know who he was at first. He is a fireman and he was really good at calming me and staying calm himself. I am back doing the things I enjoy – reading, crafting, looking after my grandchildren, family time, going to the theatre and cinema, meeting friends for lunch out, and resting!’

And her one piece of advice to others? Learn to understand what your body is telling you. ‘Had I really realised that I had not been to the toilet to pass urine for a few days I might have got in touch with the doctor before things got so serious.’ 

* symptoms common to Addison’s disease and sepsis could include low blood pressure, (hypotension), vomiting, blotchy skin and a high temperature