A dad says he almost died of sepsis – after scratching himself cutting his nails.
Tatton Spiller, 43, developed the life-threatening condition in June 2022 after receiving a “very small cut” – which put him in intensive care for five days.
He says he went to a minor injuries unit after the initial wound – caused by a nail clipper – but was told to take paracetamol, he claims.
His fiancee was out at the time, so he then went home alone – when he found himself in the “right mood”.
Political writer Tatton, from Whitstable, Kent, said: “My mother-in-law found me in a proper state in bed. I was dying. If she hadn’t come I can’t bear to think what would have happened.”
“Coming back to an empty house where there was no one to recognize him and there would be no one for 72 hours afterwards – that could be it.”
“I went back to where they had sent me 24 hours earlier and they took one look at me and called 999.”
Once the ambulance arrived, Tatton says he was taken straight to intensive care, where his memory became hazy – and the hallucinations began.
Tatton, who also has bipolar disorder, says the infection convinced him it was 1966, he was in a movie theater and that a tiger was in his hospital room.
He added: “I was hallucinating, I didn’t know where I was. I had no connection to reality at all.”
It wasn’t until his fiancee Katie, who he’s been with for six years, was finally able to visit him that he came out of the fog and moved into a recovery ward.
Since the incident, Tatton has made a full physical recovery – but still struggles with mental health from the traumatic events.
He was unable to cut his nails for the first few months after moving home, asking his fiancee to do it for him – but he says he’s over that now.
Tatton, who founded the popular website Simple Politics, said: “I was very unlucky to get it but I survived. I am a very lucky man.”
“Since then I have made a full recovery physically. Mentally I experience bad flashbacks in the intensive care unit.”
“I remember some of those visions very clearly and they are not good.
“Everything can upset me and it’s hard because suddenly you’re back dying in the hospital again”
Now Tatton is campaigning to raise awareness of the condition, encouraging others to examine their own incisions – no matter how small.
He said: “The word sepsis is much more in people’s vocabulary now than it was.
“It takes such a small infection to then have these big consequences. Making people wonder, ‘could this be sepsis?’ and controlling it is very important.”
“It is not only the risk of dying, but also the cutting of hands and feet, to be in a coma, to tell your loved ones that you may die.”
“All of this is preventable if we can get people to ask if they have sepsis.”
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