Charly Babington, a 40-year-old mother, thought she was just fighting off generic cold symptoms, so she didn’t think to visit a doctor. She continued to do everything as usual – until she went out shopping with a friend and suddenly felt unwell.
Her minor backache flared up; it became incredibly difficult to walk. She decided to go home early that day, to rest and let her symptoms subside.
Babington’s condition only got worse: Her eyes swelled up, her face turned blue, and she had a hard time breathing evenly.
Less than a day later, Babington fell into a coma and had to be put on life support at the hospital.
When she woke, Babington discovered that her hands and feet had turned black, and she had no feeling in them anymore. Her doctors diagnosed her with pneumococcal sepsis, a serious infection of the blood.
The blackened limbs had changed color because of blood loss, but there was nothing the doctors could do to reverse this change. Her hands and feet would need to be amputated.
Babington elaborated on her condition, “My feet and one of my hands are just dead. I can’t move them at all. I can feel and move my arm from the wrist down, but the fingers are black and numb.
“I’m going to be disabled for life and there’s no avoiding that.”
She knows, particularly when compared to others who have battled sepsis, she’s quite lucky to still be alive and has an incredible family by her side to take care of her. “I’m going to fight this fight and get through this recovery so I can get back to my children and normality,” she decided.
If you’d like to support Babington’s journey back to a normal life, you can donate to her medical fundraiser here.
