A “fit and healthy” young man was forced to have both of his legs amputated just days before his 21st birthday – after his flu-like symptoms turned out to be sepsis.
Levi Dewey was left in an induced coma with just a 30% chance of survival after being struck down with the life-threatening condition.
The previously active 20-year-old, who loved playing football, first fell sick with flu-like symptoms and began taking over-the-counter medications.
But mom Lara took him to hospital after “mothers intuition” told her something was wrong when his condition failed to improve.
The former JCB welder then went into sceptic shock and suffered multiple organ failure at Royal Derby Hospital.
Medics found he was suffering from pneumococcal pneumonia and sepsis and he was transferred to Leicester’s Glenfield Hospital for specialist treatment.
Doctors told Lara and dad Neil their son would need surgery to amputate both legs below the knee – an operation he had two days before his 21st birthday.
When he woke up Levi said he felt lucky to be alive but ‘nothing could prepare him for how much his life would change.’
Levi, of Willington, Derbys., said: “I woke up and Christmas had passed, it was like my life was flipped upside down.
“I was relying on my family to tell me what had happened, it was such a blur.
“It was really difficult because I nearly died and I am so grateful to be here but I had to wrap my head around spending the rest of my life without my legs.”
Levi said his recovery was difficult to come to terms – with both the mental toll and the physical change that came in the aftermath.
He said: “When I got home, it didn’t really feel like home because I was stuck living in my front room.
“I couldn’t get changed by myself or even sit up and because I lost my feet I had to relearn how to drive again with my hands.
“It is those things people can’t really understand.
“I am so lucky to have amazing support and I am so thankful that I am here, but getting sepsis has completely changed my life.”
His parents said they first took him to hospital in December 2022 after getting concerned with his “quick and shallow” breathing.
Levi’s mom Lara said: “I don’t know if it was mom’s intuition, but his breathing wasn’t right.
“He was dosed up on cold and flu tablets but he had a high temperature that wasn’t cooling and he was really drowsy, with no appetite.
“He just wasn’t my Levi.”
After being put into an induced coma, Levi, now 23, underwent Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation treatment at Glenfield Hospital in Leicester.
It involved pumping blood outside the body through an artificial lung, where carbon dioxide is removed and oxygen is added, before the oxygenated blood is returned to the body.
Lara recalled: “It all happened so quickly.
“We were told to get home and get some rest and then we got a phone call telling us we needed to get there quickly because he was deteriorating.
“We rushed to be with him and that’s when they told us they didn’t know if he was going to make it through the night.
“He had a 30% of survival. It was horrific.”
Lara and Neil said they had very little knowledge of what sepsis was, and they were shocked to find out that sepsis meant Levi’s organs were shutting down.
Lara said: “We had no idea what sepsis was at that point or how bad it could be.
“I thought it was something that only affected older people, or something you got from a cut, so when I saw him in the hospital bed and he was a mottled colour and his legs were blue, you could see where the sepsis had got hold of him.
“I’d never seen anything like it in my life.”
Neil added: “Sepsis is actually quite common but we didn’t know much about it before it affected Levi.
“What we have learned is that sepsis affects younger people differently to older people.
“With older people, because their immune systems are more vulnerable you can see the symptoms more easily, but because Levi was fit and healthy, his immune system was masking his symptoms until it got to a point where his body could no longer cope and he deteriorated rapidly.
“Please familiarize yourself with the symptoms so you know what to look out for.”
Dr Alina Paunescu, emergency medicine consultant and trust sepsis clinical lead at University Hospitals of Derby and Burton NHS Foundation Trust.
She said: “Sepsis affects people of all ages, although very young children and elderly patients are more at risk of developing sepsis after an infection, due to insufficiently developed or compromised immune system.
“Sadly, Levi’s story is not unusual. As sepsis is caused by a dysregulated response to infection, it is not rare for young patients to develop sepsis.
“This may occur if they contract an aggressive virus or bacteria, they receive inappropriate antibiotics for what initially appears to be a minor infection, or have underlying conditions that compromise their immune system, so it is important to know what signs to look out for and when to seek medical help.”
Sepsis is a life-threatening reaction to an infection which occurs when your body’s immune system overreacts to that infection and begins to damage your body’s own tissues and organs.
Symptoms include: confusion, extreme shivering or severe muscle pain, severe breathlessness, not passing urine (in 18 hours or a whole day), blue, grey, pale or blotchy skin, lips or tongue and/or dizziness.
