Henneh Shah

My name is Hennah Shah. I am from London, UK. I am currently recovering from sepsis.

I had many symptoms within days of each other from sickness, high and low temperature, dizziness, hallucinations, lack of appetite, and also severe dehydration. I had a pressure sore on my leg, which turned into sepsis two days into finding the sore.

Unfortunately, it took 2 weeks and 3 days before the nurses picked it up, as I was going in every day to dress the sore. It took a second opinion to find out what the problem was and even then I wasn’t told it was sepsis.

I got rushed into hospital instantly and spent a month there being operated on and had antibiotics in my system for the next two weeks. My first operation was a success but they had to perform more operations to make sure the wound would be completely sealed. I was temporarily discharged and that’s when I was told it was sepsis. I had my second operation to seal the wound and there were a few complications. So there will be another operation soon to hopefully seal it completely.

I have been affected by it, as now I have memory loss, so I have trouble remembering faces and names of people I was once close to, some organ failure and lack of physical strength. It is also emotionally destroying and stressful. I have a while to go yet before I can fully recover, but overall it has been a traumatic experience. Thank you.