Girl nearly dies from tampon she'd only been wearing FIVE HOURS

 


A girl nearly died after wearing a tampon for just FIVE HOURS.

Katie Knight, from Inverness, spent 48 hours being sick before she was rushed to hospital by her flatmate.

The 20-year-old spent four days in intensive care and was just hours from death after putting in the wrong tampon.


She suffered Toxic Shock Syndrome - a potentially fatal bacterial infection commonly caused by wearing a tampon for too long or using the wrong absorbency tampon.

Katie said: "I genuinely thought I was going to die.

Katie, got back to her halls of residence and started violently being sick.

For the next 24 hours, she was in a constant cycle of throwing up and passing out every 25 minutes.

She said: "It escalated as soon as I got home, but I had no idea what was going on.

"I thought Toxic Shock Syndrome [TSS] was a myth.

"When I was being sick, the last thing I was thinking about was my period - and because I had no idea I had TSS, I left my tampon in."

She said: "My flatmate, who's thankfully training to be a doctor, came into my room because she hadn't seen me for two days.

"Apparently I was just talking gibberish and making no sense whatsoever.

"She asked me what was wrong and I said my 'activities were sore'.

"She took my temperature and rang the NHS who told me to go to A&E straight away."

Esme - Katie's flatmate - had to carry her into A&E because Katie couldn't walk or talk by this point.

She was rushed into intensive care, by which point the tampon had been in for 48 hours.


Doctors found a tampon in her system which what lead them to the Toxic Shock Syndrome diagnosis.

Katie added: "I was wearing a super absorbency tampon on the fourth day of my period and they are commonly associated with Toxic Shock.

"I now prefer using sanitary towels as any tampon can cause TSS."