Shrewsbury mum featured in podcast following sepsis trauma

Jessica Mills, 31, has been featured on an episode of Sepsis Research FEAT's podcast, 'Words of Sepsis'.

In June 2018, Jessica had been in labour with her first child for nearly 50 hours when she started to feel unwell.

"I felt very ill," she said: "I felt like I wasn’t even in the room at all but trapped within my brain. When the obstetric consultant informed me I had sepsis, I was so unwell I couldn’t understand.

"And at that point I didn’t care. Because I was in so much pain I thought it would be best to die and I really thought that I might."

Despite Jessica’s pain and confusion about what was happening to her, something instinctive took over. She said: "I knew I didn’t want to die because I had a newborn to be with.

"Something inside kicked in and I fought like hell not to be taken away from my baby. Now I can’t believe how lucky I was."

Jessica was put into an induced coma and was released from the hospital with antibiotics after six days.

Although she can’t believe how lucky she was to survive, Jessica, her husband Ryan, and their son, Arthur, are all living with the aftermath of the traumatic experience.

"Although I am now recovered I still have PTSD, said Jessica. "And my husband, Ryan, also suffered a PTSD-related mental health breakdown due to the experience, around 10 months after the birth.

"Due to the placenta, my son was born with sepsis too and I have been taking this forward with paediatricians to find out whether there is any long-lasting damage to him."

Now, Jessica has taken to the airwaves to raise awareness of the condition, in a charity special taking place for Sepsis Awareness Month.

Colin Graham, chief operating officer at Sepsis Research FEAT, said: "We are so grateful to Jessica for taking part in our Words of Sepsis podcast and sharing her personal experience of this devastating condition.

"Through our ongoing work, we’ve seen that providing a platform for those who have been impacted by sepsis – either personally or through the ill-health or loss of a loved one – is an extremely powerful way to raise awareness of sepsis and its symptoms.

"Our hope is that by sharing these stories via our new podcast, many more people will learn how to spot sepsis and more lives can be saved."

The five key symptoms of sepsis are confusion, not passing as much urine as normal, a very high or low temperature, uncontrolled shivering and cold or blotchy arms and legs.

Jessica says, “My message about sepsis to anyone out there is, if you think the reason you feel unwell could be due to sepsis, just ask and get the right medical help”.

The series is available to listen to on Apple, Google, Amazon Music and Spotify.