Civil Servant Natasha Grove gave birth to her second child, Phoebe, at Singleton’s maternity unit in January. Immediately after returning to her home in Swansea she started experiencing pain and difficulty walking.
31-year-old Natasha returned to the unit less than 12 hours later before being moved to Morriston Hospital to receive emergency treatment for Strep A infection, which led to a septic shock. She would then spend 28 days on ITU, 18 of which would be on life support.
“I knew something wasn’t right, I had excruciating pelvic pain and was barely able to walk,” said Natasha.
“After returning to the maternity unit, I underwent tests to establish the cause of the pain, which progressed to my hand and knee.
“It was established that my body was fighting a sever infection, which rapidly developed to sepsis and progressed to septic shock. I was blue lighted to Morriston hospital and then everything is a blur for me.”
Natasha suffered multiple organ failure, septic arthritis in her right knee and left wrist and pneumonia as a result of the infection, undergoing three operations during 40 days spent in hospital.
Natasha continued to struggle with mobility after being discharged and is still awaiting full function of her left hand and wrist to return. It is hoped that this will return with help from ongoing physiotherapy.
“I remember slowly learning what had happened after being taken off the ventilator. It has been an extremely difficult time for my family.
“I am incredibly grateful to all of the ITU staff, not only for their hard work and dedication to the life saving treatment that that they provide each day, but also for treating my family with kindness and compassion and answering the millions of questions that they had.”
Natasha, who with husband Andrew is also parent to three-year-old Wilfred, has recovered enough to tackle an eight mile mountain walk across a forestry trail in the Ogmore Valley. She was joined by family and friends, raising money for the Intensive Care Unit at Morriston, which helped save her life.
“There is no doubt that the care I received saved my life. We could not be more grateful to ALL staff at ITU. We are in complete awe of the fantastic work they do each day.”
“I knew so little about sepsis before this and could never have imagined that this would happen to us.”
Swansea Bay Health Charity is the official charity of Swansea Bay University Health Board.
To learn more about sepsis and the importance of recognising the symptoms and receiving rapid treatment visit: https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/sepsis/
[Lead image: Swansea University Health Board]
