A council employee has been left temporarily disabled after doctors mistook potentially life-threatening sepsis for flu.
Denise Devoto, 52, developed what she thought was a terrible cough and cold in December 2022, suffering from coughing fits that made her feel like she had “broken a rib.”
Despite feeling so weak he could not stand and suffering extreme chest pain, two doctors concluded he had a common flu infection and advised him to return home to recover.
However, after a few days her lips began to turn blue and she had difficulty breathing.
Her husband Mark, 62, called an ambulance and paramedics rushed her to hospital, where doctors discovered she was suffering from sepsis (when the body overreacts to an infection).
Denise Devoto, 52, from Sheffield, was sent home twice by doctors who failed to detect life-threatening sepsis and instead believed she was suffering from a cold.
Her condition deteriorated rapidly and she had to be admitted to intensive care, where she spent five days fighting for her life.
Fortunately, Ms Devoto, from Sheffield, survived but faced an arduous road to recovery, including five weeks of rehabilitation to learn to breathe and walk unaided.
She felt unable to leave the house for four months for fear of contracting another infection.
Only now, almost two years later, is he able to go up and down the stairs without help.
“My recovery was very hard,” she said. “I couldn’t walk up the stairs and I slept 18 hours a day.
‘I also had mental health problems and after three months I even started losing my hair.
“I couldn’t have gotten through it without Mark and our cats.”
Ms Devoto’s ordeal began on December 9, 2022, when she woke up during the night with a sharp pain in her rib cage.
It took five weeks of hospital treatment before Ms. Devoto was discharged and tasked with learning to use her lungs independently again.
She describes the agony of sepsis as feeling like she was “going to die.” Pictured here with her husband Mark.
He didn’t give it much thought, but as the days went by he began to feel ill. Within a week he had a cough and a cold.
Two nights later, she suffered a terrible coughing attack that made her feel as if she had broken a rib.
‘The next morning, my husband took me to the walk-in center, where a doctor thought I had a blood clot in my lungs.
“They told me to go to the hospital, but the pain only got worse. I couldn’t even stand.”
At the emergency room at Sheffield’s Northern General Hospital, a doctor diagnosed her with flu and she was sent home with painkillers.
But the next day, he started vomiting phlegm.
‘I thought I had also developed a chest infection, so I called my GP, who prescribed me antibiotics.
Ms. Devoto has been through many difficult times since her ordeal began, but she thanks her husband and cats for helping her through it.
‘But that same afternoon I started to feel short of breath, my lips had turned blue and I had very bad diarrhea.
“I called my GP again and he told me to call an ambulance.” Paramedics arrived within ten minutes and took Ms Devoto to the Royal Hallamshire Hospital in Sheffield, where she was given oxygen before being transferred to the Infectious Diseases Unit.
There he was given antibiotics, fluids and painkillers.
Doctors explained that the “flu” was actually pneumonia, a deadly lung infection, which had led to sepsis.
His organs had been struggling to get enough oxygen.
“I didn’t understand the gravity of what that meant,” Devoto said. “But I remember feeling like I was going to die.”
By Christmas, she was feeling a little better.
But it wasn’t long before things got worse again. Her breathing worsened along with the pain in her lungs and ribs.
The following week, a CT scan and X-ray showed a large bilateral pleural effusion (a buildup of fluid) in her lungs.
“That’s why I was having trouble breathing,” he explained. “I had also fractured three ribs from coughing and my right lung was partially collapsed.”
She was transferred back to the Northern General Hospital, where a drain was placed to remove four liters of fluid from her lungs.
But the infection still hadn’t gone away, so she was sent for another CT scan which showed that infected fluid had solidified in her lungs.
Four days later, Ms. Devoto underwent an operation in which surgeons collapsed her lung to remove the infection.
Ms Devoto now wants to dedicate her time to helping people affected by sepsis and volunteers for the UK Sepsis Trust.
She was later given a blood transfusion and intubated for a day to help her body recover. She spent six days in intensive care, after which she had to “relearn” how to use her lungs.
In January 2023, after five weeks of hospitalization, she was finally discharged. However, it was not until May that she felt well enough to leave home.
In the 18 months since her illness, Ms Devoto has strived to help others who have gone through a similar experience by volunteering as a peer support worker in Sepsis Foundation UK.
“I have a completely different perspective on life now,” he said.I have learned to listen to my body much better and not worry about the small things.
“I consider myself lucky.”
