Mid Sussex councillor raises awareness about sepsis after husband spends two weeks in coma

Councillor Sandy Ellis, who is also a Haywards Heath councillor for the North Central Ward, said her husband Paul became very unwell on Sunday, November 5.

“Fireworks night 2023 will be forever etched in my mind,” she told the Middy, saying that Paul, 59, who is a civil engineer, was an active and healthy person just last year.

Sandy said: “On Saturday we just thought he had a stomach bug. He’d been sick and just felt totally not well.”

But Sandy said she had recently read about sepsis so the couple decided to seek medical help.

She said: “Paul was going to head back to bed but within minutes of looking at him he started to change colour – people go a mottled colour where the sepsis goes. And I just thought this is not even a time to phone a doctor, this is time to phone an ambulance. It's so frightening from sepsis getting in your system, how quickly it can change.”

Paul was taken to the Haywards Heath’s Princess Royal Hospital and then rushed to intensive care at Brighton’s Royal Sussex County Hospital. His organs had started to shut down so he was put into an induced coma and put on a ventilator.

Unique jewellery worth thousands stolen from West Sussex village

Paul said that when he woke up he was shocked to learn he had been in the coma for two weeks. He said he will now have to lose all of his toes and parts of his fingers. He also has problems with his liver and bile tract. At first he could not move his hands and had to learn to walk, talk and swallow again. Paul said doctors think it will be at least a year before he is fully recovered.

The couple thanked both hospitals for their care and quick response, but they are now concerned many people do not know the symptoms of sepsis and recommend visiting sepsistrust.org.

Paul said: “Most of it is breathing, you can’t breathe and you get really hot and then suddenly you’re freezing cold and you shiver.”

The UK Sepsis Trust describes sepsis as ‘a life-threatening condition that arises when the body’s response to an infection injures its own tissues and organs’. They said: “It occurs when the body’s immune system – which normally helps to protect us and fight infection – goes into overdrive. It can lead to shock, multiple organ failure and sometimes death, especially if not recognised early and treated promptly.”

Sepsis mainly affects young children, older adults and people with underlying health conditions, but can be triggered in those who are fit and healthy.

The UK Sepsis Trust advises people to seek urgent medical treatment if an adult develops: slurred speech, confusion, extreme shivering, muscle pain, passing no urine, severe breathlessness, a feeling like they are going to die, or mottled, discoloured skin. A child may have sepsis if they: are breathing fast; have a convulsion; look mottled, bluish, or pale; have a rash that does not fade when pressed, are very lethargic, or feel cold to touch. Under fives may have sepsis if they: are not feeding, are vomiting repeatedly, or have not passed urine for 12 hours.