STELLA Benson had always been fit and healthy until her life was changed forever after she contracted a potentially deadly infection. Siobhan Ryan reports.

WHEN Stella Benson suddenly felt tired while walking with her husband Mark along the seafront, she had no inkling of what was to come.

The 67-year-old from Brighton had covered about six miles but found herself struggling to go further and the pair had to take the bus home.

The next morning she had a sore throat and earache but was still able to go into work as a practice administrator at a GP surgery.

She asked one of the nurses to take a look and they said things were slightly pink and she might possibly be developing flu.

When Mrs Benson got home, her condition deteriorated overnight and on the Tuesday morning her lips had turned blue.

She said: “I felt sick and awful. I don’t remember it but my daughter, who was staying with us at the time, said I would not let her touch me because I was in so much pain.

“Everything was hurting and I also had sickness and diarrhoea.

“I remember thinking I was going to die because I felt so bad.”

Fortunately for Mrs Benson, her husband was at home that day and was on hand when she suddenly passed out and managed to catch her and stop her crashing to the floor.

He called an ambulance and Mrs Benson was taken straight to the Royal Sussex County Hospital in Brighton.

Mrs Benson said: “I’m lucky my husband wasn’t at work because otherwise I would never have survived.

“They carried me down in a stretcher and put me in an ambulance. I vaguely remember asking how fast we were going.

“When we got to A&E I was rushed through and I remember thinking how quick it was and there was wait.”

Mrs Benson was taken straight to intensive care where she was put into an induced coma for two and half weeks.

She was diagnosed with sepsis, known as the silent killer, which affects thousands of people every year but often goes undetected until it is too late for treatment to work.

It happens when an infection causes an extreme response from the body’s immune system and can quickly lead to the failure of the heart, liver, lungs or kidneys and eventual death.

It took less than 48 hours for Mrs Benson from feeling unwell on the seafront to being in a coma.

During her time in a coma Mrs Benson was placed on dialysis to help her struggling kidney.

At one point her family was advised to stay the night at the hospital because doctors did not think she was going to make it.

However Mrs Benson managed to battle through and eventually woke up to discover she had developed gangrene in her fingers and legs because the infection had damaged her circulation.

She ended up having all her fingers amputated along with both legs below the knee, which led her to needing artificial legs.

She spent three months at the Royal Sussex before moving into the Knoll House intermediate care centre in Hove.

She said: “The care I received from the hospital was absolutely wonderful. It’s thanks to them I’m still alive and I will always be grateful for that.

“We had a lot of tears and a lot of laughs while I was there.

“The care and help from Knoll House was also great. They helped show me how to cope with thinks like holding a kettle and live independently.”

Mrs Benson was also placed into the care of the Sussex Rehabilitation Centre based at Brighton General Hospital where they helped her learn to cope with her amputation.

Following her illness, which happened in March 2011, Mrs Benson has managed to get on with her life and now has a determined new outlook.

She said: “I feel very lucky. I’m alive and I have been given another chance.

“I can manage about 90 per cent of things myself and most thing that I used to do before. I can do my pilates and go on holiday and get out and about.

“There are some things I can’t do. I found my fingers mean I can’t safely grip a car wheel so which is a pity as I used to love driving and going fast.

“I can walk but it can be very slow and that’s boring so I can use a powered chair which means I can get around faster.

“I swim occasionally but prefer to di on holiday when the weather is nice. It is too cold here.”

Mrs Benson says she feels she now has a second shot at life and treasures the new friends she has made through the hospital and rehab staff and other patients and who have been through the same experience as her.

She said: “In a way I’m more of a positive person now than I was before I was ill. I have a glass half full attitude instead of half empty.

“I have my husband, my two daughters and my two wonderful grandchildren and I have good friends.

“I could lie there and feel sorry for myself but I’m determined to have fun and be the naughty grandma instead.

“I’m a survivor.”

Mrs Benson is also keen to raise awareness of the signs and symptoms of sepsis.

She said: “ I had vaguely heard of sepsis but I had no idea how many people it affected.

“It is so very hard to spot. I know we are told not to bother the GP with minor problems like a sore throat but that is exactly how things started for me.

“People need to be aware of what symptoms to look out for if they start feeling worse.”

According to the UK Sepsis Trust, 150,000 people in the UK develop sepsis every year and of those, 44,000 die.

A quarter of survivors, like Mr Benson, suffer life-changing disabilities such as amputation or organ failure.

However awareness of the condition is still very low with few people recognising the symptoms and doctors often struggling to diagnose it quickly enough.

The UK Sepsis Trust is fronting a campaign to raise awareness of the disease.

Chief executive Ron Daniels said: “We could save 12,500 lives a year and improve the quality of life for survivors just by recognising sepsis earlier and delivering good basic care.”