A woman from Wales has shared her harrowing experience with a life-threatening infection that left her bedridden and unresponsive, initially believing she only had the flu.
As the colder winter months set in and flu season intensifies, many people become increasingly cautious about their health and the nuisance of falling ill.
However, a woman from Carmarthenshire in South West Wales, UK, nearly made the catastrophic error of assuming her symptoms were merely those of the flu.
Roberta Alisauskaite, 27, began feeling unwell in October of this year, thinking she had caught a severe cold from work, but her health soon took a turn for the worse.
Despite experiencing cold-like symptoms, Alisauskaite also developed an abscess in one of her wisdom teeth and was on antibiotics to reduce swelling.
Her condition rapidly declined over the subsequent days, as she started coughing and shivering while her temperature soared.
Instead of a typical cold or flu, she was actually suffering from sepsis, which was only discovered after extensive testing at the hospital and consultations with a medical professional.
Alisauskaite was taken to the hospital after her two young children found her in bed, unresponsive and slurring her speech—a traumatic event for them.
In an emotional video, she shared, ‘it is so bad, I can barely catch a breath,’ before bursting into a violent cough.
After the ordeal, Alisauskaite is determined to raise awareness about the symptoms that she mistakenly thought were just the flu.
She recounted: “Initially, I felt under the weather, similar to flu-like symptoms.
“On Monday, I woke up feeling extremely flushed and hot; my face was drenched in sweat, and I wasn’t wearing anything but a t-shirt.
“Feeling cold, I turned on the heating. My body then entered what I now know was septic shock.
“I was wrapped up in bed with the heating on but continued to shiver. It made me feel a bit delirious.
“I had to strip off and take a cold shower to cool down because I felt like I was on fire.
“[When my neighbor brought my kids home], I told them I was going to lie down upstairs and asked them to join me on the bed.
“I attempted to talk to my kids but couldn’t make any sense, which was terrifying.”
Sepsis is a medical emergency, and recognizing the signs and taking swift action can be life-saving. There is no single indicator of sepsis, but symptoms in adults can include slurred speech, severe shivering, breathlessness, muscle pain, and confusion.