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Elle Black, a 21-year-old first-year student at Cardiff University, initially dismissed her sore throat and flu-like symptoms as consequences of a hangover after a night out in February 2024. However, her condition rapidly worsened, and within a day she found herself hospitalized with sepsis, a potentially fatal reaction to infection. Doctors warned that if she had delayed seeking treatment any longer, the outcome could have been drastically different.
Originally from Warwickshire, Elle experienced increasing symptoms that alarmed her enough to book a private GP appointment. The doctor diagnosed her with laryngitis and prescribed antibiotics, but by then she was already experiencing severe drowsiness and confusion. “I was so drowsy, so confused, almost delirious,” Elle recounted. She later called her mother, telling her, “I can’t feel my legs,” moments before arriving at the hospital where medical staff acted swiftly.
Elle’s illness was a complication of tonsillitis known as quinsy, involving a pus-filled abscess forming near the tonsils, which progressed into sepsis. After two days of intravenous antibiotics at the University Hospital of Wales, she began to recover fully. She credits the prompt medical intervention and her quick decision to get help for her positive outcome. Reflecting on the experience, Elle said, “You don’t really hear about sepsis in this context… It was strange for my parents to hear this had happened to their daughter. My mum says it’s the scariest thing she’s ever gone through.”
Sepsis is a rapidly developing, life-threatening response to an infection, and common signs include a high fever, an inability to keep food or fluids down, extreme drowsiness, severe muscle pain, worsening sore throat or tonsillitis, and a general feeling that something is seriously wrong. The UK Sepsis Trust reports approximately 48,000 deaths from sepsis each year in the UK. Experts emphasize that sepsis often arises from infections that initially appear manageable, which can lead to its symptoms being overlooked or mistaken for more typical ailments, such as hangovers or flu. Elle is now encouraging young people to take symptoms seriously and seek medical advice promptly, highlighting how crucial timely action can be. She will also be running the London Marathon next year to support the charity Sepsis Research, aiming to raise awareness about the condition
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