Gary Barrett

I was a healthy active 49 year old, participating in every sport I could find, after feeling unwell for about 10 days with pain and inflammation I went to the doctors I was told I had just pulled a muscle in my side and not to worry. At 1am I woke my wife up to say I could not stand the pain anymore and needed the hospital. She rushed me there and I collapsed at the entrance.

I was unconscious for most of the following day, unaware of that I was losing the battle to live. The doctor, who I was told had stayed with me all day, knew things were getting very bad and call an air ambulance to move me to a specialist ICU, as I had less than 12 hours left without intervention of life-saving doctors, for which will be forever grateful.

I was suffering from septic shock that was shutting my organs down. The cause was streptococcus, which is a bacterial infection. (Sepsis and Bacterial Infections) It is still unknown how this developed. Eventually I was released but have been back as it came back, firstly in my bladder and more recently I have been hospitalised with a heart infection (believed to be related).

I feel very lucky to still be alive and have had fantastic support from family and friends, but it still feels like it’s waiting to come back. So I try to enjoy each moment, because we really do not know how long we have.