Double hand transplant mum in warning over sepsis after near-fatal battle with illness

A double hand transplant mum who lost her limbs to sepsis has warned the country must not drop its guard against the killer infection while the focus is on coronavirus.

Speaking at the start of Sepsis Awareness Month, Corinne Hutton told how losing both her hands and feet following her near-fatal battle in 2013 left her feeling “worthless” and fearing she may lose her son.

But after being given the gift of new hands in January last year, the inspirational 50-year-old has now added fly fishing to the long list of activities she has taken on in a bid to honour her donor.

Despite Corinne’s remarkable recovery, sepsis kills about 3500 people every year in Scotland and the mum of one, from Lochwinnoch, Renfrewshire, fears that while we focus on Covid-19 – which has taken the lives of almost 2500 Scots – we may fail to spot the symptoms.

She said: “In today’s times, you could really forget about sepsis because of the other infections that are around and the worry that goes with them.

“Sepsis is a much bigger killer and we can’t afford to forget about it.

“While Covid will hopefully leave us, we still have around 60,000 every year in the UK who suffer life-changing effects from sepsis.

“I wish I had known to ask, ‘Could it be sepsis?’”

The founder of the Finding Your Feet charity became the first Scot – and only third in the UK – to have a double hand transplant after being given only a five per cent chance of survival during her battle.

She wants others to know how quickly the infection can take hold and what symptoms to look out for after what she believed to be a chest infection saw her clinging to survival hours later.

She said: “I’ve asked why I survived and others didn’t and there doesn’t seem to be an answer.

“I spoke to NHS 24 that morning. I wasn’t feeling better and had been sick. They told me to come up and get checked out and when I arrived there, I collapsed.

“That’s when I slipped into unconsciousness.

“They kept me there for three weeks in a ­drug-induced coma.

“Meantime, my family were standing around my death bed preparing to say good bye, discussing organ donation and how to bring up my child.”

Corinne was placed on an “11th hour” life-support machine that replaces the function of the heart and lungs, which she says saved her life.

She added: “I had to get over that then face my black hands and feet and what to do about it.”

Medics later amputated both hands and her legs below the knee, leaving Corinne doubting her abilities as a mother to son Rory, 11.

She said: “I felt worthless. I couldn’t shower myself. I couldn’t sit upright, dress or feed myself.

“I really didn’t know if I was going to be able to do the most basic things, like being a mum. I thought at one point I might not be able to keep Rory and he might be taken off me.”

But in the coming years, Corinne made huge strides forward with the help of prosthetics and bionic hands before getting the call to say she was to receive a double hand transplant early last year.

Though she was incredibly lucky to find a successful match, there is still a chance Corinne could reject her limbs in the years to come and she relies on a concoction of 15 pills a day to make sure her body keeps accepting her new hands.

But she has made a promise to herself to make each day count in tribute to her donor – whose family she had been preparing to meet before coronavirus struck.

She said: “It was almost on the cards to meet up before lockdown. When we think it’s safe enough, that will happen.

“They have seen my letters and replied. They have said they are my hands to do with what I want now. That was really kind of them, to assure me I could treat then like my own.

“They were fly fishing the other day.

“I spent most of my time trying to unravel the line. That was a test for them. But I’m always pushing them. I’m hoping to do clay pigeon shooting and golf next.

“They felt like mine from the first minute.

“I’m so proud of them and look at them all the time and get my nails done. It seems disrespectful not to. I want to appreciate them all the time.”

As well as helping others who have lost limbs through Finding Your Feet, Corinne works with a sepsis crisis team at the Scottish Government to help raise awareness.

She said: “What I’m pushing for is a lot of research into the after effects. If you do survive it, there is very often a lot of problems there. As well as amputations, some people have lost their faces because of sepsis.

“With Finding Your Feet, we’re trying to give people the tools to be independent afterwards.

“It’s not to get people to do what I do but just to show them it’s possible and encourage them to do things they wouldn’t have done.

“I find when I’m giving myself a hard time, it’s good to remind myself how far I’ve come.”