The Full Story
Jacqui Jepson
In 2017 Jacqui was a pretty active person, big into her running. In November, she started to feel unwell at work. Later that evening she had deteriorated to the point where a 21-year-old daughter persuaded her to visit the hospital. Her temperature was 39.8°C and she only made it halfway to St Helier before having to call emergency services where an ambulance took the rest of the way.
Hospital
On the way to the hospital, Jacqui started having seizures and when she arrived at the accident and emergency department, she was taken to resuscitation where the team worked for six hours to stabilise her. She recalls being cooled with pads and remembers the sound of fans as they tried to lower her body temperature. Once stable, Jacqui was transferred to intensive care and kept under close observation.
Jacqui continued having seizures for the next few days but also had hallucinations and photophobia to add to the mix. Her high also temperature remained constant. She wore sunglasses on the ward to help with the brightness which earned her the nickname Jacqui O!
After a body scan, Jacqui’s doctor found her left lung had collapsed and the right lung wasn’t in a good state. She had pneumonia and sepsis and her heart, liver and lungs had all been affected.
Recovery
Jacqui found the five-month recovery difficult and describes it as a long and painful experience. Before her illness, she loved to be active and entered all kinds of running events. She now has lung disease which limits the choices of activities she can do but she is focusing on the things she can achieve. She is enjoying big walking challenges with her daughter and using her time to raise awareness for the JCCS. As an ambassador, Jacqui is keen to share her experiences and help others who have been through similar trauma.
