Diana began to feel unwell on a Friday evening in March last year and went to the emergency department with a high fever. She was sent home with painkillers. The doctors thought it was a cold or a common flu.
In the afternoon the next day, she had chills, rapid breathing and her feet started to go numb. Then she called an ambulance and went to Sahlgrenska hospital as an emergency.
Then and there her heart stopped for twelve minutes.
– I think I have been as close to death as you can get without being dead, says Diana.
Woke up amputated
When she awoke from a four-week coma, doctors had been forced to amputate both her arms and her legs.
– I have had moments when I felt that “no, I can’t take it, I don’t want to be involved anymore”.
Today, Diana has come a long way on her mental journey. She works out in rehab and the goal is to be able to walk properly. The plan is also for her to return to the labor market again, somehow.
She doesn’t know what kind of job yet. Electrician, as she is trained to be, can probably be a bit difficult, she thinks.
– But this shouldn’t stop me, even if it becomes a small obstacle in everyday life. It works, she says.
So many are affected every year
Sepsis is a life-threatening condition that occurs when the immune system overreacts to an infection in the body, often as a result of, for example, pneumonia, wound infection or urinary tract infection.
The body responds in a way that causes it to injure itself. It leads to organ failure, where one or more organs lose function, which is often life-threatening.
Between 40,000 and 50,000 Swedes are affected by sepsis each year, and nearly every fifth person dies. Despite that, there are many Swedes who have no knowledge of what it is.
With her story, Diana Melin wants to contribute to more people becoming aware of it.
– I want it to come out that this is something that only 65-year-olds get. Sepsis can happen at any age.
This is sepsis
Sepsis is a life-threatening condition that occurs when the immune system overreacts to an infection in the body, often as a result of, for example, pneumonia, wound infection or urinary tract infection.
The body responds in a way that causes it to injure itself. It leads to organ failure, where one or more organs lose function, which is often life-threatening.
Chills, rapid breathing and confusion can be signs of being affected, but the symptoms are often diffuse and can be easy to miss. In addition, the process is often quick, sometimes in just a few hours.
Between 40,000 and 50,000 Swedes suffer from sepsis every year and the mortality rate is high.
Despite that, there are many Swedes who have no knowledge of what it is.
Every two years, the Sepsis Foundation measures Swedes’ awareness and in this year’s survey, four out of ten Swedes did not know about the condition. In the previous study, which was done in 2021, there were five out of ten who did not know about it.
Blood poisoning is the old name, but it is no longer correct. It is an older name for the disease, based on the belief that patients would always have bacteria in their blood. But in many cases it is not so.