Tracy G.

I have had sepsis twice, the first time was with my delivery of my second child, we were both showing signs of infection so were hooked up to antibiotics but I was declining day by day. On the third day I could barely breathe and was hooked up to oxygen. I couldn’t stop shivering. I thought I was dying, it was awful. They took blood to diagnose me then hooked me up to the antibiotic which is apparently the bleach of the antibiotics. (Sepsis & Pregnancy and Childbirth)

The second time was less than a year later, because of the sepsis following my C-section I developed a hernia. I had a straight forward open operation to repair it and once again found myself on a downward spiral. (Sepsis and Surgery) My hands and feet went blue and cold, I couldn’t stop shaking etc. An ambulance was called but because I only had 1 red flag I was sent to urgent care, who sent me to A+E, who triaged me, then finally 7 hours after the 999 call I was on treatment. What followed was absolute brutality, I’m certain most people don’t believe it actually happened but it did, because of the infection (I had 2 pockets of severe infection causing the sepsis). They needed to find out where the infection was so opened up my wound – in the hospital bed on the ward without pain relief, and pulled an infected haematoma out of my abdominal cavity! Then stuck on a drainage bag and sent me off to another ward. However because of the level of infection I had to be taken back to theatre and have a surgical washout. Following that I couldn’t be stitched up because of the state of my wound so for 6 weeks I had a mechanical dressing, then a further 2 months of being packed while I healed from the inside out.

I have been left with classical post sepsis syndrome, i.e: anxiety depression, chronic fatigue, severe random pains and a really low immune system and have really struggled to get back on track. So I would love to speak to people with a similar background to know I’m not alone and that fingers crossed there’s light at the end of this very dark tunnel. (Post-Sepsis Syndrome)