Actor Warwick Davis’ wife Sammy Davis, 47, nearly died following a routine back operation
Sammy Davis, 47, was struck down by a potentially deadly trio of sepsis, meningitis and Strep B infections
THE wife of actor Warwick Davis is “elated to be alive” after NHS heroes saved her life following a routine back operation.
Sammy Davis, 47, was struck down by a potentially deadly trio of sepsis, meningitis and Strep B infections.
But medics pulled her back from the brink and now she feels she has a “second chance at life”.
Praising doctors and nurses, she said: “I owe my life to them. They were amazing.”
Sammy, who has been married to Warwick for 27 years, said fell seriously ill 19 days after having decompression surgery on her spine.
She thought she was going to die after her blood pressure soared and she lost feeling in her legs.
Now, back at home and slowly recovering, she praised the NHS for saving her life and said that her near-death experience has made her relationship with Warwick stronger than ever.
“It was awful. One night I was so ill I felt I couldn’t fight it anymore. I wasn’t scared, I just didn’t have any energy left,” she said.
“I could hear Warwick and my children talking and trying to cheer me up, but I felt completely detached. It was very surreal. We’re having a new house built and as I lay there I couldn’t imagine ever living there with them. I thought that my time was up.
Sammy, who has achondroplasia, had decompression surgery on her spine at Addenbrooke’s Hospital in Cambridge on July 18, which involved removing bone to release pressure on the nerves around her spinal cord.
She’s had the operation four times before and after eight hours in surgery she spent five days in hospital. Sammy then spent a week recovering with her children, Annabelle and Harrison in Warwick’s hotel room near Pinewood Studios, where he was filming.
“We went home a week later and suddenly I couldn’t feel my legs. I thought I was still recovering from the surgery so I went to bed, but the next day I felt awful, as though I had been hit by a truck,” she said.
“I stayed in bed all day while Warwick and Harrison went to a family party and the next morning I woke at 4am feeling even worse.
“As the day went on I couldn’t concentrate, I lay on the sofa and when I tried to get up I collapsed on the floor.”
Warwick took Sammy to her GP but as she sat in her office her condition quickly deteriorated.
“The doctor sent me to A&E at Addenbrooke’s Hospital and as Warwick drove me there I drifted in and out of consciousness. It was very scary for Warwick,” she said.