I thought I was suffering with a minor infection - I ended up losing my fingertips and lower limbs

After flying home to Kauai, Hawaii, from California in 2018, Katy Grainger noticed a tiny purple bump on her thumb which was oozing - but thought nothing of it.

However, just hours later, Katy, 58, was in hospital in a medically induced coma - about to become a double below-knee amputee and lose seven of her fingertips due to septic shock. 

'I had been traveling in California, and I had flown home to the Hawaiian Islands where I live on the small island of Kawaii,' she explained in a recent TikTok, where she often shares content warning people about the signs of sepsis.

'I got off the plane and I noticed this infection,' she continued. 'It was a little bit purple and there was fluid oozing from it.'

Noting it seemed a bit 'odd,' the mom-of-two was concerned it was a staph infection or even MRSA, because they'd had a huge flood a couple of months before, so stopped at a doctor to get an antibiotic on the way home.

'They checked me out, they gave me some antibiotic ointment, they tested my viral signs,' she recalled, adding she had a strong heartbeat, good breathing rate, normal blood pressure, and no fever.

After telling her to seek emergency help over the weekend if it got worse, Katy went home and went to sleep almost immediately.  

'I was really sleepy, so I went to bed early that night, the next morning I woke up, took a cool shower and just realized I was still really sleepy,' she noted.

Although she doesn't have much memory of what happened the following day, she had taken a photo of the infection getting bigger on her finger.

She texted her husband, who was away on a fishing trip, telling him she had been throwing up but put it down to taking antibiotics on an empty stomach. 

'I was discounting the symptoms I was having,' Katy admitted. 'I still didn't have a fever - turns out I didn't need one.'

Although her memories are hazy, Katy said she had obviously gotten up at some point to use the bathroom and missed a step, breaking one of her ankles and spraining the other - but had crawled back into bed which was a clear indication of how much distress she was in.

She eventually texted her friend for help, saying she had 'never been so sick' and saying her 'hands and feet were on fire.' 

Her friend arrived, finding her unresponsive, and took her to the hospital where she was then airlifted 24 hours later to a trauma center in Honolulu.

Once she had kidney dialysis, as her hands and feet were turning purple, doctors told her they would have to sedate and intubate her before transporting her.

Katy said when her husband eventually made it to the hospital, he didn't recognize her because she had been pumped full of so many fluids to try elevate her blood pressure.

The ICU doctor told him she wasn't stable, and she may lose some of her limbs as she was in septic shock.

Katy recalled waking up in ICU to find her fingers were black and was told they would have to be surgically removed,  admitting she hadn't yet seen her feet, so didn't realize it was likely the same thing would happen there too.

'That's exactly what did happen,' she shared. 'They were able to save my hands - I only lost my fingertips - but we weren't able to save my feet.'

Katy ended up having her lower legs amputated, and later seven of her fingertips due to gangrene.

She also experienced post ICU delirium, which she said she was like exhibiting signs of dementia. 

Katy spent six weeks in the hospital, recovering from her surgeries.

Katy and her husband moved back to Seattle, where they were living for 10 years before, so they would have more options for her medical care.

She is now an advocate for sepsis shock to raise awareness of the signs and symptoms. She volunteered for the Amputee Coalition as a Lead Advocate and is also on the board of directors of Sepsis Alliance.

Katy has also written a candid memoir called Discovering Your Grit which details her experience of nearly dying from a small skin infection.

According to the Mayo clinic, sepsis affects an American every 20-seconds. Cases are on the rise - up 20 per cent between 2019 and 2021, according to the most recent CDC data.

Now, speaking to DailyMail.com, the US' biggest sepsis charity has called for urgent national action to prevent millions more needless deaths and life-destroying injuries.

'Doctors are not provided with enough information to help them to diagnose sepsis,' Dr Steven Simpson, Professor of Medicine at the University of Kansas and Chair of the Sepsis Alliance, told DailyMail.com.

'There's no catchy phrase to help doctors and hospitals look out for it, like they have in other countries.

'Every hospital in the country should have a sepsis committee, a sepsis quality improvement program and organize their facility so it is primed to spot and treat sepsis. Currently, this is absolutely not the case.'

Although not the stance of the Sepsis Alliance, Dr Simpson said he believes the CDC should also do more to guide hospitals in looking out for the disease. 

'The CDC is getting better, at least they now have a sepsis webpage. But they should use the effort of specialist organizations like ours to inform official guidance that can be given to hospitals.'