Mom's Long Covid Turns Out to Be Necrotising Disease of the Pancreas: 'Minutes Away from Death'

A mum-of-three from the UK thought she had long-term Covid – until doctors discovered she had a necrotizing disease that left her in a coma.

The long health journey for Sam Lewis (38) began in 2021, when she started having chest pains while getting her children ready for school. She immediately went to a doctor who told her it was benign inflammation of the cartilage in her chest – but the pain returned in March 2022, she told the South West News Service, via The Daily Mail.

This time her symptoms were “dismissed” as Long Covid, she says – but later that month, the Bournemouth, England, mother of three returned to the doctor in excruciating pain.

Sam Lewis with his three children in Disneyland Paris.

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The diagnosis was a stone in the bile duct, she says. But after she was hospitalized for treatment, doctors discovered she had developed debilitating pancreatitis that “went from acute to necrotizing overnight,” says Lewis, the children’s performer.

Necrotizing pancreatitis is a “serious development,” the Cleveland Clinic says, because it occurs when part of the pancreas dies. It occurs in 20% of cases of pancreatitis — inflammation of a gland that helps in the digestive process.

The illness left Lewis so swollen that she says, “I looked like I was eight months pregnant. I couldn’t move my ankles.” The disease progressed quickly, and she ended up in the intensive care unit, and “at one point I was minutes away from death,” Lewis says.

Sam Lewis’ Long Covid turned out to be a severe complication of pancreatitis.

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“My family came in. It was shocking. I couldn’t breathe properly. It was so scary,” says Lewis, who contracted a potentially fatal sepsis infection while in the hospital. Lewis was then placed in a medically induced coma as doctors removed the dead tissue – which included half of her pancreas.

She spent a total of six months in the hospital; After the operation that saved her life, Lewis had to learn to walk again, and says that these days she is left with chronic pancreatitis, which is managed by a strict diet.

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Sam Lewis is being helped by her son after spending a total of six months in hospital.

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“I loved going out. Now I refrain from going anywhere in case I get a flash,” she explains. “I can’t even have chips, chocolate, fish and chips. I can’t eat fast food or stop by the bakery.”

But, she says, “It’s something I have to live with,” Lewis said. “Pancreatitis is evil and it can take you down.”

Categories: Trends
Source: HIS Education