**WARNING - GRAPHIC IMAGES**

A Wrexham woman is hoping to raise awareness about sepsis after a ‘stomach bug’ turned into septic shock.

In June this year Lisa Jones, 44, fell ill with what she thought was a sickness bug. The next day she was feeling “rougher and rougher” and began to realise that something was wrong.

Her sister Tanya Jones phoned for an ambulance and she was rushed to Wrexham Maelor hospital with sepsis, which Lisa didn’t know she had.

It had turned into septic shock and within an hour of being in the hospital Lisa’s organs had begun to shut down. She was placed into a coma, and according to Lisa her family and friends were warned she was not expected to pull through.

However, within hours of being taken out of the coma, she was sitting up in bed.

Lisa said: “A lot of consultants and doctors and nurses were coming up to me and saying, ‘oh my god Lisa, you’re a miracle, how are you sitting here like this?’ and obviously I couldn’t understand at first why they were all saying this.”

It was then explained to her by her family what she had gone through, and just how low her chance of survival had been. Lisa credits Tanya for saving her life by ringing the ambulance when she did.

Due to the medication that she was given to help save her life, the circulation had been cut off from her hands and feet, which then turned black. The Leader: Lisa's fingers Lisa's fingers (Image: Lisa Jones)

She was initially sent home with plans for appointments and had made attempts to walk, but said her right foot was “deteriorating badly”, so had to go to Ysbyty Glan Clwyd.

 After an initial attempt to save it with the amputation of part of her foot, her right leg was amputated just below the knee.

Lisa still has a chance of losing her left foot as well but parts of it are being debrided – where the damaged tissues are removed - to get new tissue growth.  This is also painful for Lisa.

She is also waiting for her fingers on both hands to auto-amputate, which means they will fall off.

The Leader: Lisa's fingers Lisa's fingers (Image: Lisa Jones)

Since her amputation, she has been back home and is currently bedbound. She is waiting for a bungalow to be set up for her, but will need specialist equipment and to ease the financial burden her dad James Jones has set up a Gofundme page.

It can be found here: https://www.gofundme.com/f/h7kb5-need-your-help

Lisa still has a long way to go but is determined for her ten-year-old daughter Carly-Ann Wright.

Lisa said: “She’s told me, 'Mum I don’t care if you‘ve got hands or legs just as long as I’ve got you’ and those words have forever played on my mind.”

She added: “She’s my rock.”

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The cause of her sepsis was put down as a kidney infection by the hospital, though Lisa thinks it might also have come from an infected insect bite.

Sepsis is treatable with antibiotics when it is found early, but Lisa hadn’t known she had it and said she didn’t know anything prior about it.

Now she wants to raise awareness about sepsis and hopes that others can spot the signs.

She said: “I think it should be much more out there and people should know that even though you might have a bit of an off tummy and you’re sick, don’t automatically think that it could be a tummy bug because obviously it could lead to this."