Udhyam Amin has spoken out about the medical team he credits with saving his life after a pub roast chicken dinner left him in multi-organ failure.
The 64-year-old British father of three, a businessman from South London, was rushed to St Helier Hospital in Sutton this February after eating at his local pub. What began as stomach pain and suspected food poisoning rapidly escalated into sepsis, a life-threatening blood condition, and his organs began shutting down.
Amin’s blood work revealed the severity of his condition immediately upon arrival. His blood pH had fallen dangerously low, triggering a cardiac event that landed him in the resuscitation room. Medical staff then placed him on a ventilator in the intensive care unit, where he spent two weeks in an induced coma. At one point, doctors gave him only hours to live.
His daughter, Parisha Bains, 33, described the family’s devastation during those first critical hours. “Nothing prepares you for hearing that the person you love may not make it through the day,” she said. She added that the hospital staff “comforted us through endless uncertainty, answered every question with kindness, celebrated every tiny improvement with us and gave us hope when hope seemed impossible to find.”
Bains noted the shock of her father’s survival against the odds. “But he made it through the night and that wasn’t expected,” she shared.
The initial culprit was identified as Campylobacter, a common food poisoning bacteria. Yet the infection’s progression far exceeded typical foodborne illness. Amin’s body spiraled into the most extreme category of septic response, earning him the grim distinction of being known as the “sickest patient” in the hospital.
When Amin finally regained consciousness after his two-week coma, his first concern revealed how thoroughly the ordeal had disoriented him. “One of the first things he asked us when he woke up was what date it was because he had to submit his tax returns!” Bains recounted.
The recovery that followed proved grueling. Amin had to relearn basic functions, teaching himself to walk and talk again after the trauma his body had endured. Months later, he continues recuperating at home.
Amin directed his first public statement toward the medical teams at St Helier. “Words cannot express my gratitude for the exceptional care, compassion and dedication the medical teams showed me during the most difficult time of my life,” he said. “Their skill and commitment saved my life, and I will be forever grateful. I cannot thank them enough for giving me a second chance.”
The family has since converted their gratitude into action, launching a fundraiser for Epsom and St Helier Hospitals Charity specifically supporting the St Helier ITU. The campaign aims to expand resources for critically ill patients and the families who wait through uncertain nights beside them.
Bains characterized the entire experience as shattering. “It felt like our world had fallen apart,” she said of the period when her father’s survival remained in doubt.
The pub meal that triggered the cascade of medical catastrophe was a routine roast chicken order, the kind of ordinary dining choice that made the subsequent events all the more staggering for a family never expecting such consequences.
Amin and his family continue raising funds for the intensive care unit that pulled him back from the edge.