'Don't ignore these warning signs of sepsis'

A PLYMOUTH woman who thought she had a cold after 'feeling rundown' almost died - and is urging others to look out for the warning signs.

- By KATIE OBORN

Kat Tapson says she was 'one of the lucky ones' after surviving sepsis shock, 'the final stage before death'

Kat Tapson's skin went grey and she spent a night 'uncontrollably shivering' before she was rushed to hospital and she 'owes the nurse her life' for picking up on the seriousness of her symptoms.

She had 'unknowingly entered the last stage of sepsis' - and she was in 'the final stage before death' suffering from septic shock.

The mum-of-one, then aged 35, was hospitalised and placed in a coma for 16 days to give her the 'best possible chance at living.

The 38-year-old said: "I had been feeling run down for a week or so, I assumed it was just a bad case of the flu. My husband even had the ambulance called out to me, because I was so breathless, but they also mistook my symptoms for a bad chest infection and advised me to contact the GP for some antibiotics as soon as possible.

"The next day I took a turn for the worse, my skin had greyed, and I had been uncontrollably shivering all night. Yet I still, stupidly, put this down to having a fever and not having eaten or drunk much in a few days. It wasn't until I told my parents that I thought I was dying and started to be uncontrollably sick that I was finally convinced that maybe I was 'sicker' than I was admitting too. But I still refused to call an ambulance and managed to convince my husband it would be fine to take me to A&E and wait to be seen.