A woman from Bath has spoken of her ‘horrific’ experience with sepsis after a fall and a cut to her knee while on vacation.
Loubna Trott, 51, was in Mallorca with her husband and young daughters when the carnivorous bacteria entered her system.
A few days after her flight back to England, she went into septic shock and underwent several life-saving operations, leaving her with a “deformed” leg.
She said, “Every morning I was going for a run and one day towards the end of the vacation I tripped and rubbed my knees and my hands, I actually ripped my workout leggings.
“There were quite a few people that morning so I kept running, trying to pretend everything was okay.”
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She added: “I forgot about it for a few days, but when we got home there was a heat wave in the UK and I remember being really, really cold. Like I was shaking even though it was really hot outside.
“I had blurry vision and was tired all the time. The next thing I remember was throwing up and collapsing in the bathroom. My husband called an ambulance, but the paramedics said I had just caught an abdominal bug on vacation.
The next day Lou called her GP and told them she thought she was dying. She managed to get an appointment with a doctor and her husband took her to surgery.
“I was really, really lucky to have someone there who knew what was wrong. I remember she said ‘I think you have sepsis’ and I went straight to A&E “she said.
Although her memories are still unclear, Lou said she recalled hearing people cry while waiting to be seen in the RUH.
“I heard a woman say ‘I wasn’t ready for you to go’ when someone had passed away and I was trying to convince myself that I wasn’t going to die too.
“Bacteria from the sea got into the graze on my knee and this carnivorous bug, called necrotizing fasciitis, got into my leg and ate all the way from my knee to my thigh.
“I went into septic shock and they put me in a medical coma. It was a huge threat to life and I broke down multi organ but didn’t know any of this until I woke up.
“At one point they were just picking up the time and they told my sister, who lives in New York, that maybe I couldn’t get through the night, so she had to go home.
Lou was put into a medically induced coma (Image: Loubna Trott)
However, against all odds, Lou made do and came out of her coma a week later. She said the doctors told her it was only because she was in such good shape that she survived.
She said: “It is an absolute miracle that I have survived because 70% of patients die from it. If he had made it to my pelvis, they couldn’t have done anything because they couldn’t amputate from there.
“They were just pouring antibiotics and they kept cutting and cutting until the virus was gone completely. I was operated on three or four times and then they had to prepare me for plastic surgery. It was the most horrible thing anyone could go through. “
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When Lou woke up she saw her family gathering around her but she still didn’t know if she was dead or alive.
“It was something to do with the drugs I was taking, but they all had orange plastic faces that looked like plates.
“They were looking at me and smiling and saying ‘you are so strong’ but I couldn’t understand and kept telling them that I wasn’t there,” she said.
Once she was able to stand, Lou had to relearn to walk and at first she could only manage two or three steps at a time.
“It took over a year to get back to normal, I couldn’t even take a hairdryer. I was scared to run and scared of the sea. I suffered from PTSD and flashbacks , but I tried to get stronger and stronger.
“The reason I survived was because I was in good shape, so now I think I have to stay in shape to stay in shape, especially with Covid.
“My leg is horrible, it looks like I’ve been in a fire. I had skin grafts on the other side of my thigh – it was really, really painful. I look at her and I feel sad but I know I am lucky. be alive, ”Lou said.
Lou runs to raise money for prostate cancer (Image: Loubna Trott)
She still has two more skin graft surgeries to undergo, but they have been delayed due to the coronavirus pandemic.
However, the mom of two has started running again to help her overcome her PTSD and has already taken on several challenges for a charity, including a half marathon.
She said: “I attended the race for prostate cancer and my father died of prostate cancer four years ago. I felt his presence when I was in the hospital and I wanted to give something back.
“I just signed up and started running. It’s been a really weird trip, but I find that I don’t worry about the little things anymore. When you’ve been so close to death, you enjoy every moment.”
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Source: www.somersetlive.co.uk
This notice was published: 2021-04-27 04:00:00
