Lizzy's Story

I was 31weeks pregnant and I started to feel sick Monday 22nd of August 2022 and went to bed feeling very warm. Woke up the morning of the 23rd feeling extremely hot and in a lot of pain, my temp was 38.5 so I rang The National Maternity Hospital as I had low fetal movement. They advised me to come in as long as it wasn't covid which it wasn't.

I then went to the A&E of holles st where I had blood tests done and was told I had to go to the antenatal ward.

I lay in a bed on that ward from Tuesday to Wednesday afternoon in agony from horrific upper abdominal pain and a high temp.

I was then moved to the HDU where my temp spiked to 40. At this stage I was given morphine for the pain which wasn't working.

I was told I would be transferred to St Vincent's to see the surgical team and then may be brought back to NMH. I needed morphine just to survive the ambulance over as the got worse and my heart rate increased so did my baby's.

I got to St Vincent's and was told I needed a CT Scan and that I had sepsis and an infection that they couldn't locate even after the CT Scan. At that stage I was so sick and in so much pain I didn't register the fact that sepsis could kill me all I wanted was for my unborn child to survive.

I was brought up to the ICU and put on oxygen. I woke up in the early hours of Thursday morning unable to breathe, that is when the decision was made to call in my boyfriend, my mam and the team from the NMH.

The NMH team made it in before my family and the decision was made for me to have an emergency c-section as, so I had to tell my boyfriend our baby was coming 2 months early.

I was brought down for my section and my son Louis was born , 4lbs 7oz , screaming and causing a fuss.

Unfortunately I didn't get to witness this as I was under GA.

When I went down for my section it was noted that I had a rash across my stomach,chest and shoulders, this rash had been on my body since Tuesday but was only noticed on Thursday my the doctors.

I was diagnosed with Varicella (Chickenpox) Pneumonia and Sepsis.

I didn't get to see my baby until he was 8 days old and I'm still struggling with what is called post-sepsis syndrome and PTSD.

The first picture is one of me and my friend just a few days before everything happened, I was tired and felt very sick but thought that was just down to the pregnancy alone.

Second is one of me and my boyfriend Alex in St Vincent's before I was brought down to deliver Louis, this is about 20 minutes before the ventilator was going to be brought in if I refused to have the c section.

Third is Louis at just a few hours old, swollen from the fluids I had pumped into me to keep me hydrated because I'm of my temp. I was also told for the first 3 days of Louis' life he was t going to survive.

Last is Louis now, the happiest baby in world. You'd never know that he was very close to not making it past the first day of his life.