During a game of bowling, an English woman cut her finger and had to be hospitalized because of a generalized inflammatory response associated with a serious infection.
- Nakita Harden, a 30-year-old from Norwich, England, developed septicemia after cutting her thumb by putting her fingers in the holes of the bowling ball.
- Sepsis is the consequence of a serious infection which generally begins locally.
- The patient avoided amputation, but required surgery and antibiotics to stop the widespread infection.
An outing that turns into a nightmare. In the United Kingdom, Nakita Harden, 33, cut her thumb after placing her fingers in the holes of the bowling ball, according to the New York Post. “At first I didn’t think anything of it. You get scratches all the time.”, she said. Later that evening, she informed her partner that she was feeling unbearable pain in her finger. “I told him my thumb hurt. He looked at it and saw my arm was turning red. (…) We were just a little worried, but I didn’t feel bad. My boyfriend m “He said if it got worse I was going to have to go to the hospital because it could be sepsis.”
Sepsis: people with a weakened immune system are more affected
Sepsis is the consequence of a serious infection which generally begins locally (peritonitis, pneumonia, urinary tract infection, catheter infection, etc.). According to the Pasteur Institute, it often affects patients with weakened immune systems. This disorder is characterized by a generalized inflammatory response associated with severe infection. “First of all, the patient appears very high (or sometimes low) temperature, accompanied by chills and weakness. When sepsis worsens, the heartbeat accelerates, breathing becomes faster, mental confusion sets in and blood pressure drops”, precise the MSD Manual.
Antibiotics and surgery to cure sepsis
During the night, the condition of the resident of Norwich, England, did not improve. “I woke up and I was really thirsty at one point. I tried to get downstairs and had a hard time getting there. But I needed a glass of water, so I I got there, had a drink, then went back upstairs.” she confided. The next morning, her partner decided to take her to Norfolk and Norwich Hospital where doctors directly examined her thumb. Practitioners quickly realized that the mother had developed sepsis. According to them, an amputation was not necessary. The patient needed antibiotics and had to have surgery to get rid of the infection.
After the operation, it took him two weeks to fully recover from the sepsis. “I didn’t know anything about sepsis. And that’s why I’m doing this. I think it’s important that as many people as possible know what to expect and that the symptoms aren’t ignored,” Nakita Harden told the BBC.