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A mom who thought she was just a little run down is speaking out after she mistook the warning signs of life-threatening sepsis for a mild cold.
As The Daily Mail reports, 46-year-old Jacqueline Lomoljo had been feeling like she was coming down with a cold for a couple of days before those symptoms suddenly worsened dramatically.
“I'd been feeling tired, but I thought that it was just a bug or virus,” she said. “I've got a busy lifestyle, so thought I'd be better if I slept it off. I can't believe how quickly the sepsis took hold. I remember thinking, ‘I'm going to die.’”
“I'm so lucky I survived and can spend the rest of my life with my beautiful daughter and amazing husband,” she added.
Lomoljo’s terrifying ordeal began last December, when she started feeling a bit run down and ill.
“I kept throwing up loads of food, even though I'd barely eaten,” she recalled. “My memory of the next few days is really hazy. I barely remember Christmas Day.”
Although Lomoljo’s husband was forced to rush her to the hospital just a few days later, doctors still assumed her symptoms were the result of a winter virus.
When doctors took a blood test, however, they were shocked to discover that Lomoljo had a high heart rate and dangerously low blood pressure.
“My mum, Mary, sadly died of pneumonia when she was 69. I remember being in hospital with her and the machines she was hooked up to saying her blood pressure was really low,” said Lomoljo. “My blood pressure reading was similar to hers. I remember thinking. 'That was right before she died. Am I going to die too?”
By the time Lomoljo was placed on dialysis for her rapidly failing kidneys, she essentially lost her memory as the rest of her family prepared to say goodbye.
Although Lomoljo had been placed on steroids and antibiotics once doctors determined that she had sepsis, a priest was called to read Lomoljo her last rites because the outlook did not look good.
Miraculously, Lomoljo pulled through, and she is now telling her unbelievable story to warn others about the warning signs of sepsis.
“I remember coming to in hospital, but had no idea how long I'd been there,” she said. “Doctors told me I'd had sepsis. I'd never heard of it before. I saw Christopher and he said our family had been staying at the hospital 24/7. That's when I realised how ill I'd been.”
“Don't wait to be diagnosed. Know what to look for. My doctors have been brilliant, but sepsis needs to be at the forefront of people's minds much more,” she added. “I've been through a lot, but I'm determined to stay positive. I'm the kind of person that just gets on with things, so I'm keeping my head up.”
