Andrea Hamblett

My story starts on the 19/08/2021, I was out shopping with my twin grandchildren and my daughter, we decided to go for dinner. I had a KFC. I remember eating it and something was stuck in my throat. I went to the toilets to try and move it by trying to be sick. I couldn’t move it so me and my daughter went to A&E.

They did an X-ray on my throat and she said she could see the bone so she was giving me something to help move it, I was then sent home. I then took to my bed. I went back to A&E on the 21/08/2021 because I felt really unwell and was told to go back if I had any neck pain or discomfort. The doctor looked in my throat and told me the chicken bone had gone and he then diagnosed with oral thrush and then sent me home.

My daughter checked on me when she went to bed and said I looked really ill. She then checked on me 10 minutes later and said I couldn’t talk and was finding it difficult to breath. She thankfully phoned 999. They diagnosed sepsis and blue-lighted me back to hospital. They then put me on a covid ward because of my high temperature and infection markers. Some doctor noticed how I was deteriorating and then took me for X-ray and found that the chicken bone had pierced my esophagus. I also had contracted mediastinitis which is inflammation of the chest area.

I then was transferred to another hospital for emergency surgery. I was in multiple organ failure. I had the surgery also kidney dialysis and numerous chest drains. (Sepsis and Dialysis) I remember the dreams that seemed so real they were always about my close friends and family, they were never nice ones. I felt trapped and that the hospital was not a real place I was so scared.

I was in ICU for 6 weeks. My daughters were told to say their goodbyes to me twice. Gradually I got better and transferred to a ward where I stayed for two weeks with no visitors because of Covid. I came home on 13/10/2021 on my daughter’s birthday. I had to learn how to eat drink and walk again. Just when you thought it couldn’t get worse my hair started falling out. The recovery is so hard with the sleepless nights. I was always a strong person, now I cry at the drop of an hat. I have now been diagnosed with post sepsis disorder, I now take each day has it comes and hope I can get back to the old me