The Full Story
Paul Williams
On Wednesday 16th January 2019, Paul was taken in an ambulance to Jersey Hospital with severe breathing difficulties from what he thought was a heavy Flu. Earlier that month, Paul had returned from a family holiday to Indonesia and Malaysia. He’d worked there in his early career and always loved the culture, cuisine and beauty of these countries.
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Hospital
Initially, Paul thought he just needed a little help breathing, but on admittance to the hospital, he was taken to Resus where he waited for an anaesthetist who was going to ventilate him. The anaesthetist arrived and after a brief conversation, Paul was happy to fall into a blissful sleep. Anything was better than struggling to breathe at this point! Paul would later discover he had contracted a tropical disease called ‘Weil’s disease or Leptospirosis, that later developed into Sepsis.
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Recovery
Paul had been affected physically by his ordeal and had to learn to walk again after losing over 20kgs in muscle weight while in Hospital. He was also still attending the renal unit at the hospital three days a week for dialysis, as the kidneys hadn’t fully recovered. Ironically, after a day or two at home. Paul was rushed back to the hospital feeling unwell again, but this time it WAS the Flu!
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For physical recovery, Paul attended a cardiac class at Fort Regent. He describes this as “ An amazing experience which involved excellent instructors and lots of circuit training concentration on his heart rate. All very professional”.
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It took a few months for Paul to feel a lot better in both his mind and body. His kidneys had recovered enough to stop dialysis and by June he was off all medication.
