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Pheobee Bambury, a 19-year-old student at Keele University, had just completed her exams for her pharmacy degree when she suddenly began to develop a serious headache.
Given the timing, she thought, “it was just because it was exam season and I’d been really stressed. I was a bit run down and it was that time of year where everyone gets sick.”
She’d been at the library when the symptoms first came on, but then she began to feel “really awful.” At that point, Bambury tried her best to leave the library – but didn’t manage to make it out the door until she began to vomit.
Bambury managed to make it back home to her student housing and decided to rest until that evening. Her family and boyfriend were coming into town to celebrate the end of her school term with her.
The two families made it to the restaurant, where Bambury managed to pull through the evening before falling ill again, developing a high fever that kept rising. Her mother, just sitting there with her hand against her daughter’s forehead, could tell that it was something incredibly serious.
Bambury’s mother suggested that her daughter not return all the way home to her student housing and spend the night instead at her boyfriend’s, which was closer to the restaurant.
That night, Bambury woke up in the middle of the night, feeling even worse than before. “I was shivering really uncontrollably. All of my muscles were aching and I just really didn’t feel well at all,” she recalled.
She tried desperately to think of what might be causing her body to revolt in such a way. “It was ticking over in my head and I thought I knew what it sounded like,” she described. “I went and got a box of tampons and read out all the symptoms of toxic shock syndrome.
Everything matched.”
Bambury’s boyfriend tried to reassure her and tell her not to freak out, that her symptoms were probably just “a bug or a virus,” but Bambury “didn’t want to risk it.”
“My friend’s mum died from toxic shock and so did my dad’s girlfriend’s niece,” she explained. “I didn’t know them personally, but I had been told stories about it and I knew how bad it can get.”
As it turns out, Bambury’s instinct had been right. The emergency responder on the phone said she had to be admitted to the hospital, as quickly as possible.
Bambury quickly called her grandparents, who drove her to the hospital and got her into the hands of a triage nurse.
“I was still shaking and felt really cold but my temperature was 39.7 C,” Bambury remembered. “I was in agony - I had a really bad headache and I had really bad stomach pains. It was frightening because I felt so awful.”
Doctors confirmed that Bambury had come down with Toxic Shock Syndrome. The teenager had been suffering from heavier periods in recent weeks and even though she’d made sure to change her tampon regularly, her body had still contracted the infection.
Bambury was kept in the hospital for 12 days to receive antibiotic treatment that would flush all the bacteria out of her system. While doctors say she will make a full recovery, it will take a while for Bambury’s body to fully fight off the infection.
By the time she was admitted to the hospital and administered treatment, the infection had already spread enough to cause Bambury’s skin to begin peeling all over her body.
“It could have been so much worse though,” Bambury acknowledged. “People lose limbs or even die. At least I connected the dots and recognized the symptoms, because a lot of people just think it's a really bad cold.”
Now, she’s speaking out about her experience because she knows many women who might just brush off their symptoms and ignore them, thinking them of minor consequence rather than addressing them with proper attention and care.
“It is better to be safe than sorry. Even if it is a virus, it's better for them to check it out than for you to end up with multiple organ failure,” she said. “The best advice would be not to use tampons at all…”
