Karen Paget never imagined she would be able to walk down the aisle after sepsis left her with no legs and fingers on both hands.
She started to feel unwell with flu-like symptoms after returning from a holiday in Wales in July 2018. Three days later, she took a turn for the worse and her partner Lyndon rushed her to Derriford Hospital where she worked as a nurse. Karen said: “I honestly felt like I was going to die as I felt so unwell.”
An intensive care consultant diagnosed sepsis, and she was told she may have an infection in the bowel. Karen’s family were told to prepare for the worst as she was taken into surgery to remove part of her bowel.
Partner Lyndon recalls: “The medical team said you need to call the family because it’s very serious. We all said our goodbyes. I thought it was over, but actually it was just the beginning.”
After the operation, her kidneys failed so she needed dialysis. Her feet and fingers went black, and she was told she would need to have both her legs amputated.
Karen had surgery in August and in the following months, she had further operations to remove her fingers on both hands. In February 2019, Karen went to the Thornberry Centre in Plymouth which is run by Livewell Southwest. The prosthetics rehabilitation team fits and helps people to adapt to using new artificial limbs through a structured therapy programme.
Karen said: “It has been a very emotional journey and very challenging. You can sit there and be sad or you can get up and you can get on with it.”
It was expected to take a year to learn how to walk unaided, but Karen set herself a goal with the physiotherapy team to achieve that within nine months.
Yvie Place, Physiotherapy Assistant said: “She was very positive with her attitude to getting back to walking. Karen would always tell us what she wanted and that is what we would work towards to achieve her goals. She is such an inspirational person. One of the best.”
Now 59, Karen is fiercely independent and continues to work as a staff nurse in the Colorectal Cancer Outpatient department at University Hospitals Plymouth NHS Trust.
She married Lyndon at a ceremony at the Horn of Plenty near Tavistock in May 2024. There wasn’t a dry eye in the room as her father walked her down the aisle.
Karen remembers: “Everybody was very emotional. I think a lot of the family were emotional because we had got to
that point that I could walk down the aisle, and we were still together after everything we had been through. Lyndon is my rock, my soulmate.”
The couple had been together for 16 years after meeting on Facebook. Lyndon said: “It was a long time coming. It’s something I had wanted for a very long time. It was a lovely day.”
Instead of wedding presents, they asked guests to make a donation to the Thornberry Centre. In September 2024, the couple returned to deliver a cheque for £1,450. The money will be used to enhance the patient environment and current service users are being asked how they would like it to be spent.
Livewell Southwest Chief Executive Officer Michelle Thomas said: “Karen’s story is inspirational. She embodies the ethos of the work at the Thornberry Centre which supports people to live independently and return to as many of their pre-amputation activities as possible. This selfless act of donating money to help people who are currently using the service is very special.”
Karen added: “It is just a little bit of a thank you for all they have done for me and my family. I hope because we have done that, that the Thornberry team know how we feel about them. They are an absolutely amazing team because they give people their lives back.”
