![](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/1_IMG_8510jpeg.jpg\")
Lauren Carson on holiday, unaware that she was developing sepsis <\/p>\nLauren Carson says she thought she was suffering from a UTI but almost ended up losing her lifeLauren Carson on holiday, unaware that she was developing sepsis <\/p>\n
A North Belfast woman has issued a warning after she was left fighting for her life due to sepsis after experiencing a number of common symptoms she did not believe were serious.<\/p>\n
Earlier this year Lauren Carson thought that she was suffering from the symptoms of a urinary tract infection and had been put on a course of antibiotics in the hopes that it would clear, but instead of getting better she started to develop some flu-like symptoms and a sore lower back, which she put down to stress and the impact of exercise.<\/p>\n
A few weeks would go by, with the 31-year-old even going on a holiday, and although she wasn’t feeling the best she did not expect there was anything seriously wrong with her other than a slight kidney infection.<\/p>\n
READ MORE: Vulnerable West Belfast deaf man ‘blocked into driveway’ by non-emergency ambulances<\/a>READ MORE: NI school accused of sexism as teenage boy sent home for wearing stud earrings<\/a><\/p>\n Soon though, she found herself being rushed to hospital before going into septic shock and requiring life-saving surgery to remove a kidney stone.<\/p>\n Speaking to Belfast Live<\/a>, Lauren said: “For years I have had issues with kidney infections and they usually go away after a few days with some antibiotics, but I didn’t think much of it when it seemed to be taking much longer.<\/p>\n “I had some flu or cold-like symptoms, a sore back and felt tired more often than I normally would be, but I put it down to stress and exercising and didn’t think much more about it. I even went on holidays without any issue so it came as quite a surprise when a doctor told me that I needed to get an urgent ambulance to hospital.<\/p>\n “While I was travelling to the hospital I was thinking it was all a bit over the top but shortly after arriving I went into a septic shock. I don’t remember much after that, but I have been told that if the surgery didn’t take place to remove a kidney stone I probably would have died.<\/p>\n “I still can’t get over how close things were to being fatal and with the symptoms being so normal I didn’t think much of it.<\/p>\n “Following the surgery I am now in a much better place, although I was unable to walk for a few weeks, and I hope that by sharing my experience it might be able to help someone who is possibly at risk before it is too late. I never thought the symptoms of sepsis could be so mild and it can become very dangerous very quickly.”<\/p>\n For all the latest news, visit the Belfast Live homepage here<\/a> and sign up to our daily newsletter<\/a> here.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Lauren Carson says she thought she was suffering from a UTI but almost ended up losing her lifeLauren…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":137587,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[59,102,104,64126,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-137586","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-health","8":"tag-gb","9":"tag-health","10":"tag-nhs","11":"tag-north-belfast","12":"tag-uk","13":"tag-united-kingdom","14":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/137586","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=137586"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/137586\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/137587"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=137586"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=137586"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=137586"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/0_IMG_8509jpeg.jpg\")
Lauren Carson fighting for her life in hospital<\/p>\n