I was in a coma for three sepsis after op for breast
WHEN Liz Gooch discovered she had one of the most aggressive forms of breast cancer, she underwent a double mastectomy to stop the disease from spreading.
But after having breast implants fitted 12 months on from her initial diagnosis, worse was to follow when she fell gravely ill after being struck down with sepsis.
Doctors told her devastated parents that she might only have 24 hours to live after the infection threatened to shut down all her organs.
“Having sepsis was honestly worse than my cancer diagnosis,” said Liz, 41.
“At least with my cancer diagnosis I felt more prepared and knew what treatment I needed. With sepsis, it all happened so fast and it was really terrifying.”
Liz, from Pontypridd, said she went to her GP three years ago after noticing a suspicious lump in her left breast.
“I honestly didn’t think it was anything serious. I wasn’t worried at all,” she said.
“I’m normally quite a negative person but I was positive I was going to be fine.”
After being referred to the Royal Glamorgan Hospital in Llantrisant for a mammogram and biopsy, she was diagnosed with triple negative breast cancer and discovered she was a carrier of the BRCA1 cancer gene. People with this particular gene have a far higher chance of developing aggressive breast and ovarian cancers.
After she was diagnosed, Liz said: “It felt like someone else was taking over my life. Everyone else was crying but I was just going through it. It was very, very strange.”
Following chemotherapy at Velindre Cancer Hospital in Cardiff, Liz had both breasts removed 12 months apart from one another.
She then went under the knife again to have breast implants inserted.
“I was really pleased with them. Surgeons said it was one of the best [implant operations] they had ever seen,” she recalled.
But around a month after feeling intense pain in her left side, Liz became very unwell at home just days before she was due to go on holiday to Turkey.
“I was up all night shivering and vomiting. My mother said she