Mom who thought she had stomach flu loses her leg and sees her fingers fall off after doctors discovered she had blood poisoning

A mother who thought she had a stomach flu lost her leg and is in danger of losing her fingers after it was revealed she had a life-threatening condition.

Lisa Jones, 44, from Wrexham, fell into a coma from which she had only a five per cent chance of coming out as she went into septic shock.

Now, four months later, Lisa is recovering at home after the amputation of her right leg – and she may still lose her left leg.

She credited her survival to her ‘hero’, 10-year-old daughter Carly-Ann, saying: ‘I used to be the mother and through all of this she has turned into my mother. She’s just amazing and she got me through it all.”

Lisa, whose father James is raising money for specialist equipment to support her, led a busy life before her illness, running a cleaning business and caring for her daughter.

One night in June, she woke up at 3:10 a.m. and vomited. “I thought it was a stomach flu, but as the days went by I felt sicker and sicker,” she said. ‘I started to get dehydrated because if I put anything in my mouth I would start shaking and feel nauseous.

‘After three or four days my sister Tanya said: ‘I’ve had enough, we’ll call an ambulance.’ When the ambulance arrived, the paramedics sat me in a chair and I saw they had a screen with the words ‘suspected sepsis’.

On the way to the hospital they turned on blue lights and the last thing I remember is the paramedic saying, “Don’t worry Lisa, we’ll get you in right away.”

Lisa’s family later told her that she started screaming about excruciating pain in her feet, but she does not remember this.

As sepsis shut down her organs, Lisa fell into a coma shortly after arriving at Wrexham Maelor Hospital, where doctors put her on life support and kidney dialysis machines. After being in a coma for a day, doctors told her family she had a five percent chance of pulling through.

But after three days in a coma, Lisa regained consciousness and was ‘the talk of the hospital’. She said: ‘I had so many doctors, nurses and counselors come up to me and call me a miracle and say I shouldn’t have been here.’

The sepsis had affected Lisa’s blood supply to her hands and feet, causing them to turn black. Doctors believe the original infection was in her kidneys. Lisa remembers the confusion as she looked at the dead tissue in her hands.

After five weeks in the hospital, she returned home with her hands and feet still black. She couldn’t walk, but doctors gave her physical therapy exercises, such as bending her legs, in the hope of saving them.

Lisa is now sharing her story as she wants to raise awareness of sepsis, following her own life-threatening experience

“They told me I had to let the blood flow to my feet to save them,” Lisa said. ‘When I first tried to stand up, I thought I would never walk again because I couldn’t stand at all.

‘I’ve been working so hard at home, pushing myself and trying to move my legs in bed. I remember on my father’s birthday, July 23, I made a video of myself taking two steps forward and two steps back.’

The video raised hopes among Lisa’s family that her legs could be saved, but black tissue in her right foot began to grow and it began to smell. It reached a point where Lisa “couldn’t handle it anymore.”

She had to go to the hospital in early September, but in mid-August she called and said, “I really want you to look at this foot.”

Lisa was told to go immediately to Glan Clwyd Hospital, where specialists soon began discussing the amputation of her right leg. She remembers begging the surgeon, “Please let me keep as much as I can.”

Half of Lisa’s right foot was removed. When she woke up, she was in tears of joy to see that she still had most of her leg, but over the next few days the tissue in her foot continued to deteriorate, causing ‘unreal’ pain.

Three days after the operation, a consultant warned Lisa that if she developed an infection that reached the bone, her right leg might need to be amputated at the thigh. The alternative was an amputation just below the knee, which made the use of a prosthetic leg possible. Lisa agreed to that option.

After the second operation, Lisa woke up in pain from cramps in her stump. She screamed in pain for three or four hours, unable to stretch or walk away from the cramp. Eventually the pain disappeared when the bandage was loosened.

Experts have said it is inevitable that Lisa will lose her fingers (pictured), which will fall off, although they don’t know when that will happen

She was discharged at the end of August and has had weekly sessions in hospital to remove dead tissue from her remaining foot. Doctors have told her there is a 50/50 chance that the left leg will need to be amputated.

Parts of Lisa’s hands are black and experts have said her fingers will inevitably fall off, although they don’t know when. “My right hand has been bent like a hook since I was in a coma,” she added. ‘My fingers are rock hard. I had acrylic nails done three days before all this happened and they haven’t grown, I still have the same perfect pink nails.’

Lisa has not yet been able to get a prosthetic leg. Due to problems with her hands she cannot move herself in a normal wheelchair and has been told there is a 38 week NHS waiting list for an electric wheelchair.

Her father James has started a GoFundMe page in the hope of raising £2,500 to buy an electric wheelchair and make her home more disabled-friendly. “I want to live as independent a life as possible,” says Lisa, whose finances have been strained by her health struggles.

According to Lisa (photo: her feet before the amputation), her health problem was mentally very difficult

‘It’s been really hard on my mental health, but my little girl got me through it. At night she checks whether I have taken my medicine. She made me cups of coffee. “If I go out in a wheelchair and my dad or my partner pushes me, she texts me to make sure I’m okay.”

Lisa added that she has had ‘amazing’ support from her sister Tanya, who looks after her cleaning company Clean Queens, as well as her parents, her partner Colin and his 14-year-old daughter Evie.

“Without them, I wouldn’t be here telling the story,” she said. ‘One morning I wake up and my fingers are in the bed. These things go through my head, but somehow I manage to keep it all in one part of my brain.’

According to the UK Sepsis Trust, around 245,000 cases of sepsis occur in Britain every year, and almost any infection can lead to the condition.

Lisa, who decided to tell her story to raise awareness of the disease, urged people to be aware of the symptoms of sepsis, which include vomiting, very high or low temperature and chills.