I collapsed with backache before waking up and being told I needed all my limbs amputated
A MUM who collapsed from backache woke up two weeks later to be told her limbs needed amputating. Sadie Kemp, 34, had been celebrating Christmas Day with family at the end of last year when she started to feel unwell. She told the Mirror: “I was eating my Christmas dinner at 2.30pm with my family […]
A MUM who collapsed from backache woke up two weeks later to be told her limbs needed amputating.
Sadie Kemp, 34, had been celebrating Christmas Day with family at the end of last year when she started to feel unwell.
She told the Mirror: “I was eating my Christmas dinner at 2.30pm with my family and having a laugh and by 5pm I was fighting for my life.”
When the mum-of-two began experiencing back pain, she assumed it was because she’d been putting together a play kitchen she had bought for her youngest son.
But the pain was in fact due to a kidney stone, which are quite common and mostly seen in people over 30.
Sadie, from Peterborough, said: “I said I was going to go for a bath but half an hour later I was screaming in pain on the floor saying I felt like someone was squeezing my kidney.”
Sadie was rushed to A&E where she was given painkillers. Most of the time, kidney stones are small enough to pass in urine.
But by the early hours of Boxing Day, Sadie was back at hospital having collapsed.
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Doctors took her to theatre to remove the kidney stone, but she was then put into an induced coma.
Kidney stones can lead to a kidney infection, which in turn can lead to life-threatening sepsis, which kills 48,000 people in the UK every year.
Sadie developed sepsis – whereby the body starts attacking its own healthy tissues and organs.
But the worst was yet to come.
Sadie woke up after two weeks on life support, saying: “They had been pumping me full of medicines to keep my organs alive but the limbs furthest away had suffered.
“There was no blood supply to my arms and legs and the tissue had started to die.
“At first they told me they were going to take all four limbs but as the days went on the skin started to heal.”
Sepsis can lead to gangrene in the fingers and toes, as well as a number of other disabling complications, like brain damage.
Sadie was told by doctors at Peterborough City Hospital they needed to amputate all 10 fingers.
In order to save the rest of the tissue on her hands, surgeons had to perform a procedure whereby they sewed her hands into a pocket inside her stomach.
Without doing this, there is a high risk of the tissue left on her hands becoming infected or rotting away.
After a few weeks, Sadie’s hands will be detached from her stomach.
Surgeons are now making a decision about how to amputate the lower limbs, and whether to cut from below the knee or just the feet.
Sadie said: “When I first woke up I told my mum she should have turned off the life support.
“But she said ‘would I rather my kids visit me at my hospital bed or at my grave?’.
“I’ve realised I have been given a second chance at life.
“The doctors have told me they are so confused that I’m still here, I shouldn’t be alive given the amount of poison I had in my blood.”
Brave Sadie says she has now been left without a job or home, given that she worked as a driver for NHS Test and Trace, and lived in a charity-provided home that has stairs.
She recently spent £10,000 going through a divorce, leaving her in financial strain.
But she was looking forward to “starting from scratch” when she met her new partner, Lewis, who has stuck by her throughout her ordeal.
Sadie said: “I’m just trying to get my head around why this happened and how this happened.
“I’m not earning money for my kids. They haven’t got a roof over their heads and that makes me feel terrible. I just want to be there for them and give them some security.”
Friends of Sadie have set up a GoFundMe page with a target of £5,000 to cover the costs of childcare and advanced prosthetics.
To donate to the page, click here.
What are the symptoms of sepsis?
Children
In kids the Sepsis Trust says there are six signs to look out for.
- If your child is breathing fast – with no reason to, such as they haven’t been running around
- Has a ‘fit’ or convulsion
- Looked mottled, bluish or pale
- Has a rash that does not fade when you press it
- Is lethargic or difficult to wake
- Feels cold to touch
Adults
Sepsis signs can be slightly different in adults and the Sepsis Trust say you should follow the below guide in spotting signs.
S – slurred speech or confusion
E – extreme shivering or muscle pain
P – passing no urine in a day
S – severe breathlessness
I – it feel like you’re going to die
S – skin mottled or discoloured