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A mum who was given a 10% chance of survival after contracting deadly sepsis is calling for more awareness of the recovery period.
Emma Wills, 32, from Ashford spent 10 days in a coma at St Thomas’ Hospital in London after untreated gallstones led to sepsis, which is a life-threatening reaction to an infection.
The former MoT tester is still suffering from Post-Sepsis Syndrome (PSS), which she says is “massively misunderstood” and deserves more recognition.
Scroll down to hear from Emma who says the impact has been "heart-wrenching"
PSS is a condition that affects up to 50% of sepsis survivors, leaving them with physical and psychological long-term effects including hallucinations, depression and difficulty sleeping.
Ms Wills, a mum-of-two who lives in Hillyfield Road close to Victoria Park, says her life has been “thrown upside down” since suffering from sepsis.
“When I was in a coma all my muscles wasted and I have had to learn to walk again and learn a whole new way of life,” she said.
“I am a completely different person since having sepsis - my mobility withholds me a lot and mentally it destroys you.
“My liver function still hasn’t recovered and I have no feeling in my feet or toes - I don’t think I will ever fully recover.
“I’m having to learn to be the new Emma, not the Emma that I was.
“I found out about PSS by looking it up on Google.
“I think it is still massively misunderstood and we need to shout about it from the rooftops."
Ms Wills, who now works in administration from home, started to feel unwell towards the end of 2017 - with what a doctor had diagnosed as acid reflux.
“The doctors kept telling me that I’d overindulged over Christmas,” she added.
“I went to the hospital because I wasn’t getting anywhere and they told me that my liver function was completely deranged.
“I was told I had gallstones and within 24 hours I was put on life support and they discovered I had sepsis.
“I was taken to intensive care and given every antibiotic that’s on the sepsis spectrum but it wasn’t working - I was too far gone and it had already taken hold.
“My kidneys had stopped, my lungs had filled with water and my heart was failing.
“A few hours later I was in an induced coma and my parents were told to gather my children and everyone to me to say their goodbyes because I wasn’t responding to antibiotics and there was nothing more they could do.
“It’s heartbreaking to think how close it came to my children having to grow up without their mum.”
Doctors transported an Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation (ECMO) machine - a life-support system which is used on patients whose lungs are not working properly - to the Harvey from St Thomas’ Hospital for Ms Wills to use.
When she became stable, she was transported to the London hospital where she was kept in a coma for 10 days.
Ms Wills says if the ECMO machine was not available, she “wouldn’t be here now”.
But 15 months after leaving hospital, she has been suffering with a combination of physical, psychological and cognitive symptoms as the PSS symptoms continue.
Ms Wills - who wanted to share her story to try to help others - now attends support groups run by the UK Sepsis Trust, which is based in Newington near Sittingbourne, to get support with her PSS.
“I find it massively helpful,” she said. “One of the volunteers is a sepsis survivor himself and the other one is an intensive care unit nurse, who advocates for sepsis and is a sepsis nurse.
“If it wasn’t for them I wouldn’t be here.”
