Essex mum thought she would die from maternal sepsis

Three years ago, Sue Puddefoot, 62, from Saxmundham, Suffolk, went into Ipswich Hospital for a hip replacement.

Surgery went well and she recalled still feeling pain around her hip, but the doctors said she could go home.

Her husband Mark noticed she looked “absolutely awful” and doctors decided to test for an infection where her blood markers came back extremely high.

Doctors believed she had suffered a septic shower, where bacteria or toxins from an infected site are released into the bloodstream, rapidly triggering sepsis.

Due to being so unwell, Sue missed her son’s wedding.

“It’s really strange because I don’t think it’s actually hit me, it didn’t hit me what I’d been through and the severity of it,” she said.

Sue recovered, but quickly went downhill again, feeling very cold and shaking despite a normal temperature.

Doctors believed she had a second septic shower and Mark said “it had been very touch and go”.

She had seven blood transfusions and years on she suffered from some memory loss and struggled to regulate her body temperature.

“I hadn’t known anyone that had sepsis before,” Sue said.

“It’s worrying that there’s so many people that haven’t heard of it.”