Student who lost her fingers and legs to blood poisoning … but defied the odds to live

New term: Syeda Mannan wants to make a fresh start edition 13th sept 2016
David Tett
Ross Lydall @RossLydall13 September 2016

A student who will return to her university degree after losing her legs and fingers to sepsis said today: “I don’t let it affect my outlook.”

Syeda Mannan, 21, became one of the youngest adults in the UK to undergo a quadruple amputation to save her from blood poisoning.

The Queen Mary University of London student, who resumes her law and politics degree this month, said: “My parents wanted me to take a year off. But I had my heart set on going back straight away.”

Ms Mannan, of Crawley in West Sussex, sought medical help for a sore throat last October. She was given drugs for a fungal infection resulting from lupus, which is caused by problems in the immune system, but had a severe allergic reaction and went into septic shock, suffering multiple organ failure. Her legs were amputated above the knee in November and her fingers in March.

'Remarkable': student Syeda Mannan
David Tett

“I was one of the sickest patients they have ever had,” she said. “Most other patients don’t make it. It was like a domino effect — it all just went downhill as soon as I started deteriorating.”

Ms Mannan was treated first at East Surrey hospital in Redhill before being transferred to St Thomas’ in Lambeth. She spent 10 months in care, including 13 weeks in rehabilitation, learning how to walk again.

About 50 staff at Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS trust played a role in her treatment and recovery. Jodie Georgiou, clinical lead for the trust’s amputee rehabilitation unit, said: “She has been remarkable. Her mindset is so positive and so strong.

“Being a quadrilateral amputee is very difficult. We don’t see it very often in young patients unless they have had a form of sepsis. You see it with military casualties. We generally see a patient like Syeda maybe once a year, or maybe even rarer.”

Ms Mannan said: “None of us knew what sepsis was before it happened. A lot of the doctors thought it was meningitis. To this day they still don’t know exactly where it came from, how it happened and how it escalated so quickly.”

Today is World Sepsis Day, with doctors calling for greater awareness of a condition that is responsible for at least 44,000 deaths each year in the UK. It accounts for more than one in 10 deaths of children under four.

Ms Mannan has progressed from her “stubbies” to prosthetic legs, bringing her back to full height, and is now able to climb stairs and walk outside.

“As soon as I came round and started to recover, I made the decision that I wanted to get back to university straight away,” she said. “This was when I was in intensive care.

“Sometimes I do get sad and ask why this has happened to me. But I don’t let it affect my outlook. There’s no use dwelling on the past. I want to focus on the future. I want to make a fresh start and be the best I can be."

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