A dad who spent months in hospital and underwent nine operations after falling ill with sepsis has thanked the teams who saved his life.<\/p>\n
Craig Myall, from Dover, was taken to William Harvey in Ashford in January after suffering severe stomach pains.<\/p>\n
Craig Myall, from Dover, in hospital while he battled sepsis. Picture: East Kent Hospitals University NHS Foundation Trust<\/p>\n
Doctors discovered the forklift driver had a serious intestinal infection, and surgeons removed 800ml of pus from his bowel.<\/p>\n
The infection triggered sepsis, a condition which turns the body on itself when fighting an infection which can be fatal if not treated quickly.<\/p>\n
Craig was placed in a medically induced coma in the hospital\u2019s critical care unit – where he had terrifying hallucinations, including that there were scorpions on the ceiling.<\/p>\n
He went on to endure a series of complications that required nine separate operations.<\/p>\n
Craig now lives with a stoma and ileostomy, meaning he must wear a bag to collect his stoo. Yet despite the ordeal, Craig says he will be \u201cforever grateful\u201d that the care he received allowed him to return home to his two daughters.<\/p>\n
He said: \u201cI had heard of sepsis, but I didn\u2019t really understand what it was, and I never thought it would happen to me.<\/p>\n
\u201cAt the time, you don\u2019t realise how ill you are, but it has a huge impact on your loved ones. The treatment I received was amazing; there\u2019s no doubt I wouldn\u2019t be here without it.<\/p>\n
\u201cThanks to the hospital staff, I was able to come home and enjoy time with my children again.\u201d<\/p>\n
Craig spent 18 days in a coma and more than six weeks in critical care before being transferred to another ward to continue his recovery.<\/p>\n
He was finally discharged at the end of May, but when he left the hospital, he needed to use a wheelchair and struggled with speech and memory.<\/p>\n
Craig Myall, from Dover, after coming out of hospital following his sepsis battle. Picture: East Kent Hospitals University NHS Foundation Trust<\/p>\n
He still faces further abdominal surgery but hopes to return to work before the end of the year.<\/p>\n
\u201cI had to learn to do a lot again, including walking. At first, I couldn\u2019t get my words out and I was very forgetful,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI needed constant support, but now I can manage most things myself. With lots of physio, I can walk unaided, though the brain fog is still there.<\/p>\n
\u201cEssentially, I missed five months of my children\u2019s lives.<\/p>\n
\u201cI also had terrifying hallucinations in critical care, like seeing scorpions on the ceiling, thinking I\u2019d been kidnapped, or even thinking there was an IKEA outside the unit where I wanted a hot dog.\u201d<\/p>\n
As well as hospital staff, Craig was supported by his sister Sam, who paused her university studies to care for him, and his partner, who visited regularly.<\/p>\n
Craig has been supported by the critical care follow-up team since his discharge home, as well his sister Sam and his partner \u2013 all of whom he was quick to thank.<\/p>\n
In a visit back to the hospital, he met staff who looked after him, and he was able to thank them personally.<\/p>\n
He said: \u201cIt felt right to go back and say thank you.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo many people played a part in my recovery: dieticians, physiotherapists, speech and language therapists, consultants, nurses, and health care support workers.<\/p>\n
\u201cSam put her life on hold for me, they both sat with me for hours. My sister even kept a diary, though I haven\u2019t been able to read it yet.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m grateful to every single one of them.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A dad who spent months in hospital and underwent nine operations after falling ill with sepsis has thanked…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":132152,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[43],"tags":[3859,3861,102,2960,191,194,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-132151","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-healthcare","8":"tag-ashford","9":"tag-dover","10":"tag-health","11":"tag-healthcare","12":"tag-kent","13":"tag-syndicate","14":"tag-uk","15":"tag-united-kingdom","16":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/132151","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=132151"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/132151\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/132152"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=132151"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=132151"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=132151"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}