“I’m alive after being given a two percent chance of surviving sepsis. My son – who has special needs, and has had sepsis 13 times – had it at the same time. His life was in the balance, whilst I was in a coma. People need to know that you don’t just get sepsis from a cut.”

“I’m Yvonne and I live in Hastings, and I’ve been asked by Sepsis Research FEAT to share my story, and my twenty-four-year-old son Asha’s, of sepsis.

Asha has special needs and has been admitted to hospital 13 times for sepsis since 2017. His last admission – to Homerton Hospital in London in May 2019 – happened whilst I was in Hastings Conquest Hospital also suffering from sepsis. For the 13 weeks he was in hospital Asha had family members by his side, whilst I was in an ICU 70 miles away in a coma.

I had been to my GP five times with a bad cough due to my asthma. The GP advised that the cough was viral, despite my struggling to breathe. He advised me to use my asthma pump more frequently and to take paracetamol and increase my fluids. However, over December 2018 I deteriorated and ended up collapsing at a Christmas family gathering on the 27th.

Having been admitted to the Conquest Hospital, I was in a coma for three months. I was totally paralysed, being tube fed and on kidney dialysis, with extremely low blood pressure. I had a temporary ileostomy, was on a CPAP (Continuous Positive Airway Pressure) and heart machine and had loads of toxic medication pumped into me.

I was so ill I can’t remember who told me I had sepsis – it was all a blur and my coma has wiped a lot of memories. But I think it was the surgeon whilst I was in the ICU. I couldn’t understand anything I was being told and I just burst into tears.

I was in intensive care for seven months. My family was told that I had a two percent chance of survival. But I’m alive now, after also nearly losing an arm and leg.

Asha is a young man with cerebral palsy, Crohn’s disease and ASD. GPs told various family members that he had a urine infection. Unfortunately he wasn’t given antibiotics or a blood test and was eventually blue-lighted to London where he was diagnosed with a fistula on his bladder, which was leaking and causing infection leading to sepsis.

Asha underwent surgery to repair the fistula. However, as he was so unwell and had complications due to the sepsis, a blood clot developed and further surgery was needed. At that point he was so malnourished they had to sedate him and insert intravenous feeding and drainage tubes. His life was hanging in the balance.

They gave him various antibiotics to combat the sepsis but Asha had become immune to a lot of them so it was trial and error before the hospital could find one to treat him. Finally, they found one that worked.

Without the family on constant rota to support Asha during his long admission, he wouldn’t have survived. When they were told face-to-face by the doctor that it was sepsis, they weren’t shocked as he’d had it 13 times in two years!

My son is a fighter and the family was sure that he was tough enough to get through it. And he did. It’s amazing what the human body can overcome, but sepsis for someone with complex needs is challenging. There’s not enough awareness of it and people I speak to still think you only get sepsis from an infected cut.

I’ve had speech therapy, physiotherapy and counselling to help me recover, and I’m still learning about sepsis. My outlook now is: stay strong, nothing is impossible – even a second chance at life – so embrace it.”