‘I thought I could cure my UTI with cranberry juice, but I ended up with sepsis’
Watch: 'I thought I could cure my UTI with cranberry juice until it gave me sepsis'
“If I’d known how ill you could get from ignoring a UTI, I never would’ve left it." That's the message Maisie Lewis wants to share after she developed deadly sepsis.
After noticing she needed to use the toilet more frequently, the 20-year-old, hair stylist from Cardiff tried to "flush out" the mild Urinary Tract Infection (UTI) with "water and cranberry juice" for the next four days.
But her symptoms, including "excruciating" lower back and pain while passing urine merely got worse, and lead to her making an appointment with her GP.
She was sent home with antibiotics, but deteriorated quickly and was rushed to hospital where she was diagnosed with urosepsis - a specific type of sepsis which develops from UTIs and cystitis when it is left untreated.
Read more: Woman raising awareness of sepsis after what she presumed was a cold led to the condition (Yahoo Life UK, 5-min read)
Lewis first noticed her symptoms in late August, while on holiday in Milan.
Aside from needing to go to the toilet more frequently, she said she felt "absolutely fine".
But within four days of treating it by drinking lots of water and cranberry juice, Lewis says her symptoms became “dramatically worse”.
Her lower back became painful, and using the toilet was “excruciating.”
Suspecting a UTI, an infection in your bladder, kidneys or the tubes connected to them, after arriving home she visited her GP, who took a urine sample and prescribed a course of antibiotics.
Sepsis: Read more
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Sepsis nearly left my daughter without her mother (Yahoo Life UK, 9-min read)
Lewis says she wasn't worried as she regularly suffers from UTIs and had experienced worse in the past, but says her symptoms worsened over the coming days.
She experienced hot and cold flashes, dizziness, shakiness, and hallucinations – all common symptoms of sepsis and septic shock, according to the NHS.
After telling her parents, Lewis was rushed to the Prince of Wales Hospital, where she received her urosepsis diagnosis.
She was hooked up to a heart monitor, which showed her heart rate "skyrocketing" to 130 BPM, and was told her organs were beginning to shut down.
"I was given the strongest antibiotics you can possibly have," Lewis says. "I was hooked up to an IV drip; fluids constantly pumping through me.
"I was close to going into complete septic shock, but luckily they got to me in time. I couldn’t stop shaking, was unable to breathe and I just felt really faint.
"I was also hallucinating, which I was told was common for urosepsis," she explains. "It was horrendous.
"The best way to describe it was like seeing an old film going round and round. I saw myself as a baby, I could hear my grandparents’ voices, it wouldn’t stop."
During her first two nights in hospital, doctors monitored Lewis' condition 24/7, but after her second night she slowly began to improve.
She was discharged after six nights, but it took weeks for Lewis to get back on her feet.
"I’ve only recently, in the last couple of weeks, felt back to normal," she explains.
"I can’t believe all of this was caused by a UTI."
Now she is feeling better, Lewis is keen to urge other women to take UTIs seriously and wants to raise awareness about what she believes to be a "lack of education" around the subject.
"None of my friends knew UTIs can get this bad," she explains.
"All I’ve ever known is, drink a little cranberry juice and you’ll be fine, but it's just not that simple."
Lewis is calling for the topic to be taught during sex education classes in school.
"Every single woman has had a UTI, but not everyone knows just how bad things can get," she explains. "My body went through so much in such a short space of time."
"I’ve since spoken to women who have had their legs and arms amputated, and parents of people who have died due to urosepsis.
"No matter how mild your symptoms are, go to the doctors, get antibiotics and get all the help you can. Don’t just treat it like it'll pass on its own as it may not."
Additional reporting SWNS.
