Sepsis grandmother and quadruple amputee on transplant list 'wants to hold granddaughter's hand'

• Kim Smith explained how she lost all four limbs to sepsis, speaking to ITV News Anglia's Rebecca Haworth

A grandmother on the waiting list for a hand transplant said the first thing she wants to do is hold her granddaughter's hand.

Kim Smith had already had both hands and legs amputated before two-year-old Evie was born, having contracted sepsis three years before.

In 2017, after nine weeks in an induced coma, she woke to find infection had killed all four of her limbs and doctors began preparing her for surgery.

That is one of the first things she can remember after falling ill while on holiday in Spain.

"I had been complaining of pain in my left side and saying I didn't feel too well," the 61-year-old from Milton Keynes explained.

"I was cold. I had a blanket around me and I was shivering. My feet were freezing cold. I had two or three pairs of socks on but my feet wouldn't get warm.

"I was extremely breathless but I had put that down to my asthma. I had no idea. I had never heard of sepsis."

Mrs Smith and husband Steve went to a Spanish hospital and tried to explain the pain in her back, but after x-rays showed no break, she was sent away again. A doctor later prescribed antibiotics for a kidney infection but the pharmacy did not have any in stock.

The next morning she woke at 4am "feeling like I was going to die" and returned to the hospital.

"Steve sat outside in the waiting room for a couple of hours," she said. "Then they took him my dressing gown, pajamas, slippers, all my jewellery in a bag, and went 'here you go, she won't be needing these, she could die. She's got six hours to live'."

Mrs Smith had sepsis, an extreme reaction to an infection which sees the body fighting its own tissue, and was fighting for her life.

Thanks to efforts from her family, she was eventually flown back to the UK by air ambulance and woke up in Milton Keynes Hospital where news of the amputations was broken to her.

"I think I was a bit delirious," she said. "When the doctor came in I just said 'yep, ok, get them off, how soon can you do it?' It had to be done. They were dead."

The mother and grandmother has remained stoically upbeat throughout her ordeal and, although admitting to some down days, said she now had fresh reason to feel positive.

After a year-long process, she has recently been accepted on to the organ transplant list for two hands after being put forward for it by her GP.

Knowing she could get a call "any day now", she is looking forward to doing one thing in particular - holding granddaughter Evie's hand. At the moment, the two-year-old can only hold her grandmother's stump.

"Being an organ donor is a big thing," she said. "To me, it's an amazing gift they will give me. Being able to hold my granddaughter's hand is the best gift they could give me."

Once the transplant takes place, it could take a couple of years for the grandmother to regain full touch sensation while her brain adjusts to the new limbs. But she could feel hot and cold after just three or four months.

The surgery will give her back her independence, allowing her to drive again, and make her less dependent on carers.

Mrs Smith, who insists "there's no point in moping around in life", added: "It will be amazing."

The grandmother is also fundraising for a special piece of equipment to make it easier for her husband to get her in and out of the car.

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