New mum who blamed back pain on childbirth is left fighting for life after developing deadly sepsis
A MUM-OF-TWO who blamed her back pain on giving birth was left fighting for life after she was struck down by deadly blood poisoning.
Victoria Walker, 28, thought the dull pain in her lower back, her shivering, and extreme thirst were due to having just delivered her second child, Tommy, now 22 months.
But three days after the birth, when her friend Alice Flood, 26, noticed she was so ‘dazed’ she couldn’t talk properly, she insisted they phoned the hospital.
After blood tests revealed sepsis - a potentially life-threatening condition triggered by an infection or injury - doctors said if she had gone to bed at home as planned, she would probably have “fallen into a coma and died".
“I can’t stop thinking about how lucky I am to be alive,” Victoria, of Southampton, said.
“The thought that I could have left my boys is the scariest thing.
“I assumed my symptoms were because I’d just given birth and that it was normal to get backache.
“If it wasn’t for Alice, I wouldn’t be here, as I would have just gone to sleep. I’m so grateful to her.”
Victoria had a natural birth at the Princess Anne Hospital, Southampton, after going into labour with Tommy, born weighing 8lbs 15oz, on February 6, 2015.
The full-time mum said giving birth to Tommy was far more painful than it had been having his big brother, Freddy, five.
Five hours later, she was allowed to go home and went straight to bed, feeling exhausted.
Then, at 2am, she woke her partner James Hocking, 29, a mechanic, complaining of a painful back.
“My back was killing and I was shivering uncontrollably,” Victoria said.
“I spent an hour in the bath, trying to warm up. The next day I had no appetite, was constantly thirsty and felt dizzy.”
At one point, her stomach was hurting so much, she lay on her bedroom floor in pain.
“James said we needed to go to hospital, but I told him I’d be fine,” she added.
But her condition deteriorated and when, on the third day after giving birth, account manager Alice visited, she took it more seriously.
“Alice told me I could hardly talk or breathe, as I was just on the sofa in a daze,” she recalled.
“When I phoned the hospital, they said I needed to come in immediately.”
I didn’t have the foggiest idea what sepsis was, but doctors explained it was blood poisoning. When I researched it, I read that people often mistake sepsis for common flu and that it can be fatal, which was so scary. Every night I went to bed I was frightened I would die.
Victoria Walker
Her mum Helen Everett, 53, drove her to hospital where Victoria had blood tests, two chest X-rays, kidney and heart scans.
Feeling severely depleted, she also needed a four hour blood transfusion and was given oxygen, intravenous antibiotics and had a catheter fitted.
On her first night back in hospital, Victoria was diagnosed with sepsis, caused by an abscess on her left kidney, which had developed because of a urine infection.
“I didn’t have the foggiest idea what sepsis was, but doctors explained it was blood poisoning.
"When I researched it, I read that people often mistake sepsis for common flu and that it can be fatal, which was so scary.
“Every night I went to bed I was frightened I would die.”
Hospitalised for 11 days, Victoria, who was monitored closely by nurses, said she woke up every night at 2am having a shaking fit.
She had Tommy with her, but was too weak to care for him and relied on nurses to bathe him, while her mum bathed her.
Once her infection was under control enough for her to be allowed home, she still had to return as an outpatient every day for three weeks, to receive intravenous antibiotics.
“I suffered with post-traumatic stress for about a year after; which made me quite depressed,” Victoria recalled.
“I was relieved that I’d survived, but panicked that I’d get sepsis again every time I felt sick.
“It’s upsetting that I don’t remember a lot about Tommy’s first 12 months because of it all. I just remember feeling miserable. Luckily, James was very good with me.”
Now back to her normal self, Victoria still thinks about her experience every morning when she wakes up, and before going to bed at night.
RELATED LINKS
“I have to remember to be grateful I’m here,” she said.
“I just think about my boys and I feel OK. It’s important people are aware of the symptoms, because sepsis is so easy to miss.”
Dr Ron Daniels BEM, Chief Executive of the UK and global sepsis expert said: “Stories like Victoria’s remind us of the devastating human cost of sepsis.
"Individuals and families have their lives torn apart each day in the UK by this condition, and a quarter of survivors suffer lasting consequences.
"Earlier recognition and treatment of sepsis can also mean hugely improved outcomes for those affected, we need clinicians and members of the public all over the country to ‘Just Ask: could it be sepsis?’"
WHAT IS SEPSIS?
Sepsis, also referred to as blood poisoning or septicaemia, is a potentially life-threatening condition triggered by an infection or injury.
In sepsis, the body's immune system goes into overdrive as it tries to fight an infection. This can reduce the blood supply to vital organs such as the brain, heart and kidneys.
Without quick treatment, sepsis can lead to multiple organ failure and death.
Early symptoms of sepsis may include: a high temperature (fever) or low body temperature, chills and shivering, a fast heartbeat and fast breathing.
In some cases, symptoms of more severe sepsis or septic shock (when your blood pressure drops to a dangerously low level) develop soon after.
These can include: feeling dizzy or faint, a change in mental state – such as confusion or disorientation, diarrhoea, nausea and vomiting, slurred speech, severe muscle pain, severe breathlessness, less urine production than normal – for example, not urinating for a day,
cold, clammy and pale or mottled skin and loss of consciousness.
For more information visit The Sepsis Trust