'I LOST MY LEG TO SEPSIS AFTER A DIP IN THE SEA'

With World Sepsis Day falling on 13 September, we chat to Vicki Paris, whose minor cut led to infection and life-changing surgery

- ALI GRAVES

It was only a simple paddle in the sea on a family holiday in Crete, but for Vicki Paris it changed her life. After catching her foot on something sharp beneath the waves, a slight infection set in.

A month later she was battling sepsis. “It came on so quickly,” says Vicki. “Within four weeks I’d gone from having an infection in my foot to requiring amputation.”

She has a stark warning about the much misunderstood condition. “Sepsis took my leg, it almost took me – it’s frightening.”

Born in Exmouth, Devon, and now living in Inverness, Vicki, 42, returned from her holiday in 2018 unaware of the trauma that was to follow.

“I noticed my cut was red, swollen and tender. I had developed a slight infection and went straight to the hospital where they decided to stick my infected foot into a plaster cast,” says Vicki, who has also lived with diabetes since she was nine.

“But my health deteriorated rapidly. My son was only eight at the time and I’d gone from being able to take him to school, which is only 50 metres across the road, to not being able to walk.”

Her blood sugars too were running out of control and, taking strong painkillers, she admits some of that time is now a blur.

“My body was unwell, my mind was unwell and I had so many medications. I was very, very poorly.”

It was on the fourth week of attending regular hospital appointments for her leg when disaster struck with Vicki’s body terrifyingly falling apart in front of her.