A mum made a miraculous recovery from the brink of death after she was struck by a mystery bug – dubbed “infection X” by baffled doctors.
Jayne Kennedy’s family were told she was unlikely to survive as all her organs failed and she developed severe septicaemia.
She spent five days on life support in a Leeds hospital but has amazed medics by making a full recovery.
The mum-of-three said: “I have been so lucky that I recovered. I’m going to make the most of my life.”
Jayne, from Horsforth, Leeds, became ill in April.
The 47-year-old thought she was coming down with flu.
“On the Monday I went shopping, came home and felt dreadful and that was the last I remember,” she said.
During that week she worsened and on Friday an emergency doctor who came to see her called an ambulance.
Her sister Jacinta said: “Her organs had shut down.
“The paramedics had to work on Jayne for over an hour in the house to find a vein.”
At St James’s Hospital in Leeds, doctors warned husband Alan and her family to expect the worst.
“They didn’t expect her to last the night,” Jacinta said.
Medics gave her massive doses of antibiotics and started a barrage of tests as they had no idea what had caused her to become so ill.
The next day Jayne was put into an induced coma and onto life support.
“The doctors said that if she got any worse, she was already on the maximum life support that you can have,” Jacinta said.
Over the next few days she remained very ill, but eventually started to improve.
Now she is fully recovered, with only a few scars on her feet.
Doctors still don’t know what caused her illness as all tests came back negative.
“They said ‘let’s call it Infection X’ because they’d never seen it before,” Jayne said.
Jayne’s family believe prayers and positive thinking played a massive part in her recovery – as well as the skills and dedication of the medical teams who cared for her.
Her sister wanted to show her thanks by raising cash for St James’s Hospital and she hopes to collect £5,000 through a gruelling bike ride.
The 44-year-old, who lives in France, will cycle 600km from Spain to Portugal.
She said: “You can’t forget and you’ve got to give back.”
* Visit: www.justgiving.com/Jacinta-McHale to contribute.
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