A British woman who she had her hands and feet amputated due to sepsis is now getting ready to have a rare double transplant. Kim Smith, 61, from Milton Keynes, contracted sepsis when she fell ill with a bladder infection on a trip abroad with her husband, Steve, 63.
As a result of the infection, Kim, who used to be a hair dresser, devastatingly had to have parts of her limbs cut off, the Daily Star reports. The anguished mother experienced severe back discomfort and a terrible fever in 2017 prior to her diagnosis and said at the time she thought ''she was going to die.''
Her husband rushed her to a hospital in Elda, Spain where she was then diagnosed with sepsis and placed into a medically induced coma for six weeks. Kim was flown home to England and spent a further three weeks unconscious in Milton Keynes hospital.
She was then taken to Bedford Hospital for the major surgery and spent over three months recovering, before attending Queen Mary's Hospital, in Roehampton, for rehabilitation. Kim, from Walnut Tree, Milton Keynes, said: "For almost six months, I was just in bed until I got to go to rehab.
''I didn't know how to sit up as my muscles had just gone. It was horrible! I could see that it was obvious that my limbs needed to be amputated. When the doctor said it I just said 'yes that's fine. Get it done!'
"I knew enough to see they were useless and that nothing else could be done." She is currently on the waiting list for a double hand transplant at Leeds General Infirmary, which has successfully performed 14 life-changing transplants since 2016.
Kim cannot work since the amputation, says she misses her hands most of all as she cannot do things for herself. Husband Steve, who was a vehicular collection and delivery driver before Kim's illness, is now Kim's main carer.
After the transplant, Kim hopes to be able to cook, sew and do everything for herself again. The preparation for a transplant includes ensuring Kim has immunity to a range of illnesses and is currently awaiting chicken pox vaccinations, which is the last step in her preparation.
She added: "The doctors did an X-ray on me just two days before I was admitted, but as nothing was broken, they sent me away. I had absolutely no idea what sepsis was or how serious it is.
''It's absolutely vital everyone knows how devastating sepsis is and how it can kill people so quickly. I believe I was saved to use my voice and to share my shocking story to help save others' lives.
''I get an awful lot of people saying I'm an inspiration, I deserve an MBE or OBE or that they couldn't cope with this, but you just have to get on with life. I have an amazing husband & family who have helped me through without their love & support things would be very different I'm sure."
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