A mum was “minutes away from death” and had to learn to walk again after her chest pains turned out to be a flesh-eating bug ravaging her pancreas. Sam Lewis, 38, had been to the doctors three times with a pain in her chest before doctors found a gallstone blocking her bile duct.
After being hospitalised, Sam’s health quickly declined and she was diagnosed with pancreatitis which became necrotising. The mum-of-three spent six months in hospital and had to have half her pancreas cut away to save her life.
Now Sam has to eat a strict low fat carb diet to avoid inflammation in her pancreas – meaning she can no longer have a fry up. Sam, a children’s entertainer, from Bournemouth, Dorset, said: “At one point I was minutes away from death. Pancreatitis is evil and it can take you. It’s hard pill to swallow.”
Sam first started getting chest pains in 2021 while getting her children ready for the school run. She went to hospital but was told she had costochondritis – an inflammation of the breastbone – and sent home with painkillers. Sam got a similar pain again in March 2022 but after going to the doctors she claims her symptoms were “shrugged off” for long Covid.
But later that month the pain came back again so Sam went to hospital and was taken for a CT scan which revealed a gallstone blocking her bile duct. This had caused pancreatitis – where the pancreas becomes inflamed. Sam said: “They said we believe you have acute pancreatitis.”
Her condition rapidly deteriorated overnight, with her body swelling up and her gallstone attacking her pancreas, leaving her barely able to move and struggling to breathe. She recalled: “They said ‘we’re going to put you on a low fat diet and you’ll be fine’. It went from acute to necrotising overnight.
“My whole body swelled up.My gallstone was attacking my pancreas. I looked so swollen I looked like I was eight months pregnant. I couldn’t move my ankles.”
As her condition worsened, Sam was transferred to intensive care, where her family were warned that she might not survive. She said: “My family came in. It was heart-wrenching. I couldn’t breathe properly.”
Despite the odds, Sam pulled through, but her ordeal was far from over. After two months in hospital, she developed sepsis and was rushed to Southampton Hospital, where doctors were forced to put her in an induced coma and operate to remove dead tissue and half of her pancreas.
When Sam finally woke up, she was left with a drainage bag and an NG feeding tube, and was unable to walk. She spent a month in Southampton Hospital before being transferred back to Bournemouth Hospital for another month.
It wasn’t until August 2022 that Sam was finally able to return home. However, her health issues have left her with chronic pancreatitis, a condition where the pancreas is permanently damaged by inflammation.
As a result, Sam has to follow a very strict diet, cutting out foods she loves, such as fry-ups and pastries, and sticking to a low-fat, low-carb regime to avoid flare-ups that could land her back in hospital. She said: “It’s something I have to live with. I used to love my food. I used to love going out. Now I refrain from going anywhere in case I get a flare up. I can’t even have crisps, chocolate, fish and chips. I can’t have fast food. I can’t even pop to the bakery.”
It took her a year to regain her ability to walk properly, and Sam has yet to return to work. Sam is hopeful that she can “indulge” a bit this Christmas – but fears she’ll end up in hospital with an inflammation flare-up. She expressed: “This year I’m really excited for Christmas. I’m ready to really enjoy it.”