Sepsis survivor hails Fife hospital staff who saved her baby

Michelle Bazari says the NHS staff helped her to battle back from partial paralysis, and taught her how to hold her premature son Braxton-Lee.

One morning in May 2019, Michelle, who was 30 weeks pregnant, woke up to find she was bleeding.

Michelle said: “I was 30 weeks pregnant and I woke up bleeding. I just called the ambulance. They came straight over and took me to Victoria Hospital.

“They did all the checks and they called my parents down south, my mum had to get an emergency flight to be there.

“I had a high temperature and they kept opening the windows for me but I said I was feeling cold. They kept checking his heart rate.”

The dramatic sequence of events that followed was later relayed to Michelle by family and medical staff when she woke up in hospital.

She said: “I had to be rushed in for a c-section, because they noticed my baby’s heart rate was dropping.

“They had to save my life and his. I wasn’t sure what was happening because I was really out of it.

“Everything just happened to quickly. I was losing a lot of blood, so they took the baby out – they thought he was dead. They had to rush to save my life.”

Thinking the baby had died, doctors put the newborn aside on a table as they looked to focus their efforts on saving Michelle’s life, but the youngster quickly made his entrance into the world known.

“He wasn’t responding, but they realised he was alive when he peed on the doctor as he was leaving the table. They had to put him in an incubator straight away.”

With the operation over, Michelle was taken to the recovery room before she woke up, but was unable to see her son just yet.

“I couldn’t hold him or anything when be was born.

“They told me he was ok, he was in the incubator and I could see him later.

“They also told me that the whole placenta had an infection, so I had to be kept away for a while.”

Things got worse for Michelle, when she went into septic shock.

“I wasn’t responding well when people were talking to me. I wasn’t right. They started doing tests and realise something was going on in my brain.

“The infection in the placenta had spread into my body, they explained that I had fluid on the left side of my brain.

“They had to send me to Edinburgh for what they called a small operation. It took hours, but it went well.

“I was in an induced coma for a week to help my body to rest.

“But I was struggling to wake up, I wasn’t responding.”

When Michelle began to come round she found that talking was difficult, as was some movement.

“I wasn’t even speaking, just shaking my head.

“Speaking was hard because I didn’t have any speech. I was saying the wrong things and it just wasn’t right. They asked me to lift my right hand and I couldn’t move it. My right leg wasn’t moving.

“I just had a weakness on the whole right side.”

Three weeks later, Michelle was moved back to Victoria Hospital, where she says staff worked tirelessly to.

“I had to re-learn a lot of speech. You feel like no one understands you. I struggled to speak.

“They had to teach me to look after my son, like all the things that a mother should know, because of everything I’d gone through.

“They had to make sure that I was confident in myself, I had to learn how to walk, put him in the pram, walk him.

“Occupational therapy took me for walks and taught me day-to-day things.

“ It was a hard journey waking up and having so much to learn. All the little things like making a cup of coffee, taking a bath or dressing myself up, and holding my son because I was so weak.

“They were brilliant. It started to feel like home to me. All the three months I was there everyone knew me. It was so amazing.

“I went back to see them in November last year because I felt like it’s good, as a patient, for them to see how things are now and they were really happy, and I promised to go back to visit again when Braxton is walking.

“They told me how my son was growing and developing in the incubator. They had pictures of my son all over my bed so I would remember.

“I couldn’t see him for a month.

“Now he’s great. People are just shocked by how much he’s grown because he was so small. I’m so happy, just so grateful. I just don’t have any words.

“If I hadn’t made that call to the hospital I don’t know where I’d be right now.

“I’m so grateful for all the help they gave me. They treated me like I was at home, I was just so happy with everything they did, especially those who looked after my son. They cared for him like he was their own child. They are brilliant.

“I’m so thankfull for all the staff at Victoria Hospital. They saw me go through it.

“My parents were so far away, and the staff would take time out to talk to me even if they were busy. Even when I was so down they gave me so much help.

“My goal is to tell other women who go through this that they are not alone.

“There are a lot of signs, if you have a high temperature, or a seizure for example, get checked out.”