A dad-of-four says he almost died from sepsis after scratching himself while cutting his nails.
Tatton Spiller developed the life-threatening condition after getting a “very small cut” – which put him in intensive care for five days.
The 43-year-old says he went to a minor injuries unit after the initial wound – caused by nail clippers – but claims he was told to take paracetamol.
His fiancée was out at the time so he went home alone but his condition deteriorated.
The politics writer from Whitstable said: “My mother-in-law found me in a right state in bed. I was dying. If she hadn’t come round, I can’t bear to think what would have happened.
“Going back to an empty house where there was no one to spot it and wouldn’t have been anyone for 72 hours afterwards – that could have been it.
“I went back to where I had been sent away 24 hours ago and they took one look at me and called 999.”
Once the ambulance arrived he was taken straight to intensive care, where his memory became hazy and hallucinations began.
Mr Spiller, who also has bipolar disorder, says the infection convinced him it was 1966, he was in a cinema and a tiger was in his hospital room.
“I was hallucinating, I didn’t know where I was, I had no relation to reality at all,” he added.
It was only when fiancée Katie, who he has been with for six years, could finally visit he snapped out of the haze and was moved to a recovery ward.
Mr Spiller has fully recovered physically since the incident in June 2022 but still battles with mental health from the traumatic events.
He could not cut his nails in the first few months after going home, asking his fiancée to do it for him – but he says he has now moved past this.
“I was pretty unlucky to get it but having survived it I am a very lucky man,” the Simple Politics website founder said.
“I have since physically made a full recovery. Mentally I experience bad flashbacks to the intensive care unit.
“I remember some of those visions very clearly and they are not good.
“Anything can set me off and it is hard because suddenly you are back dying in hospital again.”
Now Mr Spiller is fighting for more awareness of the condition, encouraging others to get their cuts examined – no matter how small.
“The word sepsis is much more in people’s vocabulary now than it was,” he added.
“It takes such a small infection that then has these huge consequences. Getting people to ask ‘could this be sepsis?’ and getting it checked out is so important.
“It is not just the risk of dying, but having your hands and feet amputated, being in a coma, your loved ones being told you might die.
“All of it is preventable if we could get people to question whether they have sepsis.”
Sepsis is the body’s life-threatening reaction to an infection and is the number one cause of preventable death in the world, according to the Sepsis UK charity.
It says awareness of the key symptoms of sepsis and acting quickly can and does save lives.
The common symptoms of sepsis in adults are: a very high or low body temperature, uncontrollable shivering, confusion or disorientation, passing less urine than normal, blotchy or cold arms and legs.
