Blister from a new pair of heels left model fighting for life with killer sepsis
A MODEL was left fighting for her life after she contracted deadly sepsis from a blister caused by a new pair of heels.
Gemma Downey, 23, noticed her espadrille platforms were rubbing her heels as she walked to the train station last week.
She took them off and switched to a more comfortable pair but within a day she was being treated for early onset sepsis.
The freelance model, from Billingshurst, West Sussex, said: "It started off as my shoes rubbing on the back of my foot, it sort of broke the skin, like a cut.
“At some point it looked like it was forming a tiny blister.
"I had a plaster on because I didn’t think it was anything significant but later I did notice it had a strange colour and it went downhill from there."
Agony
Gemma added: “I was wearing normal every day shoes, they weren’t high heels or anything, just a pair of platform espadrilles.
"They were hurting me a bit when walking but I wasn’t wearing them for an extensive period of time or anything.
“I started noticing I couldn’t walk properly and was limping and was in pain a lot more than normal.
“My foot had swollen right up and was travelling round my ankle area and the pain was absolutely awful.
“I just dropped to the floor in agony and that really hurt, it was getting more and more swollen. “
It was then when Gemma decided to get it checked out and went to the doctors, where she was prescribed antibiotics.
However she kept feeling worse so she went to A&E at Worthing Hospital, where the doctors couldn’t find anything concerning.
The next morning Gemma started being sick so she went back to the doctors who told her she was showing the early stages of sepsis.
She was sent straight to hospital and treated for sepsis and cellulitis, a bacterial skin infection, before being discharged two days later.
Gemma added: “I had pains all over my body, I had chest pains and trouble breathing, I knew something was seriously wrong.
“I was still being sick. I went to my doctor and he said my heart rate was sky high, my blood pressure was really really low, my temperature was high.
I had pains all over my body, I had chest pains and trouble breathing, I knew something was seriously wrong
Gemma Downey
“I was told I was showing early stages of sepsis but thankfully I was able to get treatment before it could escalate to anything further.
“My skin had started getting blue and that’s by that point the actual blister got a lot bigger.
“I know it can be fatal – the doctors told me I was lucky I had acted on it and went to check it out because it could have been more serious."
Gemma has been told sh ewon’t be able to wear anything but flip flops for the next three months.
It could likely affect her job as a model which involves posing in heels or on tiptoe a lot.
MORE ON SEPSIS
She added: “Everyone assumes it was stiletto heels that caused it but the shoes I was wearing are very popular at the moment, they’re in trend, just normal every day shoes.
"My consultant told me I can't wear shoes for the next three months at least, while it heals.
"It won't stop me from wearing heels because I love heels but for now I will need to see how the healing process goes and then see when I can start wearing shoes with backs again."
Symptoms of sepsis
If you, a loved one, or in the case of medical professionals their patient, feels "severely sick", doesn't appear to be themselves and shows any of the following symptoms, sepsis should be suspected:
- weakness
- loss of appetite
- fever and chills
- thirst
- difficult or rapid breathing
- rapid heart rate
- low blood pressure
- low urine output
If a person is suffering these symptoms and they are thought to have suffered an infection - pneumonia, abdominal infection, urinary infection, or a wound - sepsis is a likely cause.
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