Woman's fight for life after contracting cold over Christmas
A mum has spoken out about her terrifying 12-day battle with deadly sepsis – which saw her dramatically deteriorate from celebrating Christmas Day to hours from death in less than two weeks.
On Boxing Day 2017, Helen Hewlett, 49, began to feel as though she had a cold coming on after celebrating Christmas Day with her family.
But just 12 days later, by January 7, doctors had told her husband Gary that she would probably not survive after her cold turned into sepsis and her body began to shut down.
Her husband Gary was told twice that his wife wouldn't make it as Helen spent two months fighting for her life, temporarily paralysed and only able to communicate with Gary through scribbled notes.
Initially thinking she just had a cough, Ms Hewlett thought nothing was untoward until December 28 when she began to feel worse.
"My sister said I didn't look as well as I usually do. I didn't think anything of it,” she said.
"Then between Christmas and New Year when I was at home I developed a cough. On New Year's Eve I felt quite poorly but just thought it was flu.
"No partying for me, I just went straight to bed.
"I went back to work soon after and still felt really bad. I remember sitting in on a job interview and when the candidate left I fell asleep on a desk.”
Ms Hewlett said a colleague told her to go home and and a straightforward two-hour journey turned into four as she had to stop at every service station to sleep.
“I didn't know what was happening to me,” she said.
Helen went to her local GP the following day who told her that she was suffering from flu.
But she continued to feel worse until the following day, January 7, when her worried husband Gary rang paramedics concerned that Helen was losing consciousness.
She was promptly run to her local Bristol Southmead Hospital where doctors quickly realised Helen's organs were shutting down and she was in the midst of a battle with deadly sepsis.
Despite the best efforts of staff to stabilise her, Helen's condition continued to decline leaving doctor's with little choice but to put her on an ECMO (Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation) machine so her heart and lungs could rest.
But since recovering, the mum-of-two from Bristol, England, said it has completely changed life and made her appreciate the small things.
"I came so very close to the end,” she said.
"In the space of just a few days I went from feeling a bit unwell to ending up in hospital. It's scary how quickly something you think is minor can escalate to something big.
"I want people to know how quickly sepsis can develop. If you're feeling unwell and think something isn't right don't hesitate in going to a doctor.”
Two years on since the nightmare Christmas holiday, Ms Hewlett said she was starting to feel like herself again.
"I can get a bit short of breath but generally life is pretty good, I'm trying to put it behind me and get really strong and fit,” she said.
"It's made me a more positive person, it makes me put things into context better, you realise what's really important."
She was eventually discharged from hospital at the end of February 2018.
Because of her time in hospital, Helen had suffered significant muscle wastage and had to relearn how to walk.
Despite this, Helen said that medics told her that the reason she had survived her ordeal was because of her high level of fitness.
"If you have flu and you just think it's more than just feeling under the weather go to get checked out, know the signs,” she said.
"I was amazingly lucky. I was lucky that I was fit and my doctor's acted decisively."
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