![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/1785532991_432_image-5.png\")
Cameillia Ramdass and her daughter Seraiyah at vacation last June. ( Submitted by Seraiyah Ramdass)<\/p>\nWhat began as severe back pain after recovering from the flu quickly became a medical emergency for the 43-year-old Montrealer.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI would never leave you guys. I\u2019m sorry you have to go through this,\u201d those were the first words that came out of Cameillia Ramdass mouth after waking up from an induced coma to her children.<\/p>\n
Now recovering from multiple amputations, she\u2019s speaking publicly to raise awareness of sepsis and the importance of early diagnosis.<\/p>\n
Cameillia Ramdass and her daughter Seraiyah at vacation last June. ( Submitted by Seraiyah Ramdass)<\/p>\n
Everything changed for Ramdass in January. <\/p>\n
Her 23-year-old daughter Seraiyah was by her side during this ordeal. She had to make difficult decisions for her incapacitated mother who received vasopressors, a lifesaving medication, but which also constricted the blood flow in her limbs, eventually resulting in the quadruple amputation.\u00a0<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/imgonline-com-ua-FrameBlurred-0c81dCiSC3iJ9Vid.jpg\")
Cameillia Ramdass before the infection. ( Submitted by Seraiyah Ramdass)<\/p>\n
\u201cI think this could\u2019ve been totally avoidable because the doctor did not listen to my concerns. It was just a simple urine test and a simple blood test he could have taken to determine if I had a kidney infection when I got to the hospital,\u201d said Ramdass.<\/p>\n
One in five people who develop sepsis will not survive, according to Doctor Alison Fox-Robichaud, the scientific director of Sepsis Canada and professor of medicine at McMaster University.<\/p>\n
\u201cSepsis is the \u00a0the body\u2019s life-threatening response to an infection. It\u2019s when the body\u2019s immune and clotting system and systems that are designed to fight that infection kind of go into overdrive in an attempt to control that infection \u2026 everybody\u2019s a little different in terms of how they present. And that\u2019s part of the challenge of recognizing somebody\u2019s becoming septic.\u201d said Fox-Robichaud.<\/p>\n
While she agrees that Capnocytophaga\u2013the bacteria that was found to have caused Ramdass\u2019 sepsis is rare\u2013she estimates that sepsis is the fourth leading cause of death in Canada and that it is the only G7 country without a national sepsis action plan.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you present yourself to hospital and you\u2019re just feel like I feel like I\u2019m going to die feel horrid. I\u2019m pretty sure I\u2019ve got an infection. Ask the question, could it be sepsis? Because that may actually trigger the health care workers to do additional blood work to to think about that,\u201d said Dr. Fox-Robichaud.<\/p>\n
Those at higher risk include young children, older adults and people with chronic health conditions who are taking immunosuppressive drugs.<\/p>\n
Ramdass, who has lived with lupus (a chronic autoimmune disease where the immune system attack the body\u2019s own tissues) since she was twenty two, was in shock after waking up from her coma and missing three limbs. <\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/imgonline-com-ua-FrameBlurred-mZSbybAibAxKTcVX.jpg\")
Cameillia Ramdass at the hospital after the amputation. ( Submitted by Seraiyah Ramdass)<\/p>\n
\u201cI thought to myself well my job is gone. My livelihood is gone. My social life is gone. It\u2019s devastating for me. You know I have two kids,\u201d said Ramdass. <\/p>\n
Seraiyah says that she\u2019s \u201cproud\u201d of her mom. For mother day she wrote a Medium<\/a> post to document her mom\u2019s journey with Sepsis and to help raise awareness. She has also started an online fundraiser<\/a> to help raise the money needed for her mother medical needs.<\/p>\n Ramdass is focused on what lies ahead now. She has come a long way\u2013unable to even turn over in bed at first\u2013she\u2019s now doing 5 hours of rehabilitation daily learning how to write, feed herself and was fitted with her leg prostheses just this week. <\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m hopeful for the best for the long-term because I will get my legs,\u201d she said. \u201cI will be able to walk. I will get my arms. I will be able to do makeup again and because I was a makeup artist and cook again and bake again like I used to and that\u2019s what\u2019s most important to me. I live for my kids.\u201d<\/p>\n \t\tKeep it Factual<\/p>\n Add CityNews Montreal as a trusted source on Google to see more local stories from us.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/shared-image-26-1024x768.jpg\")
Cameillia Ramdass\u2019s two children helping her into her wheelchair , in their home in LaSalle. On July 31 ,2026.( Rita Kamel, CityNews)<\/p>\n
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