Tampon nearly killed me, says student who spent 4 days in intensive care
WHEN Katie Knight started to feel ill in the university library, she put it down the usual stress of cramming for an essay.
But before long the 20-year-old found herself in intensive care, where she spent four days battling life-threatening Toxic Shock Syndrome (TSS).
After discovering she was having her period, doctors realised she was suffering the potentially fatal bacterial infection – commonly caused by wearing tampons for too long or ones of the wrong absorbency.
Miss Knight, a student at glasgow University, used a super absorbent tampon as she prepared for a full day of work. But she had only been studying for five hours before she was struck down by TSS.
Miss Knight said: ‘I genuinely thought I was going to die. It was one of the most horrific experiences of my life.’
dizzy and nauseous, she took a taxi back to her halls of residence and started being violently sick.
Miss Knight said: ‘It escalated as soon as I got home, but I had no idea what was going on. I thought Toxic Shock Syndrome was a myth.’
For the next 24 hours, she was in a constant cycle of vomiting, diarrhoea and fainting.
Miss Knight’s flatmate, who is training to be a doctor, became concerned after finding her friend in her bedroom with a temperature, ‘talking gibberish and making no sense’.
The flatmate took Miss Knight, who by now was only hours from death, to hospital. At this point, she could not walk or talk, and her tampon, which she had forgotten about, had been in for two days.
Miss Knight, from Inverness, spent a week in hospital – four days of which were in intensive care.
She said: ‘When I came round I had no idea what was wrong and was insistent they let me go. That’s when the doctor said to me that I needed to accept there was something seriously wrong and I might not make it through. I just cried and cried.’
Miss Knight added: ‘I was wearing a super absorbency tampon on the fourth day of my period and they are commonly associated with TSS. I now prefer using sanitary towels as any tampon can cause TSS.’
There are around 40 cases of TSS a year in the UK. With early diagnosis it is treatable, but three people die from it every year on average.
In 2015, 13-year-old Jessica-Louise Roberts died from sepsis while on her period during a family holiday.
Her parents, from Wigan, greater Manchester, launched a campaign to help spot the signs of TSS after the schoolgirl was wrongly diagnosed with winter vomiting bug Norovirus.
‘I thought I was going to die’