'I felt confused, couldn't stop shaking, and was sweating so much my bedsheets had to be changed several times. Recovery: Kevin (left) pictured with wife Lisa, son Jamie, 4, and daughter Abigail, 6, and (right) back on his feet, competingīut three days later, on Christmas Day, Chris deteriorated. He was put on intravenous antibiotics to fight the remaining infection. 'The abscess could have happened anywhere in the body but in Chris's case it happened to settle near the spinal column.'ĭoctors drained the abscess during his surgery but although it relieved the pressure on his spinal cord, Chris remained paralysed and it wasn't clear if long-term damage had been caused. Healthy cells nearby may then build a wall around the area to enclose the attacked cells - forming an abscess,' says Professor Hilton. 'The immune system will have tried to destroy it - producing pus and goo in the process. The risk is if the microorganism gets into the bloodstream, and spreads. Chris's immune system may have been weakened by lack of sleep because of the baby.' 'However, if the microorganism is present in particularly large numbers or pathogenic which this can be, or if the person is very young, elderly or unwell, the ability to fight infection may be compromised. Usually the immune system detects the microorganism in the body and responds accordingly, attacking and destroying it, and the wound heals. However, a cut - whether it's a severe wound or a paper cut - provides the organism with an entry. 'As long as it's outside the body it doesn't cause harm. Hospitalised: An MRI scan revealed an eight-inch mass on Chris's spin, here pictured with daughter Abigail The thought of life in a wheelchair didn't bear thinking about, especially with a baby. 'I was active, cycling 150 miles a week and playing golf and football. But I was terrified at the thought of cancer or never being able to walk again,' says Chris. 'I felt relieved they were taking action. Chris was told he'd be operated on the next morning, so doctors could see what it was and if it was cancerous. The mass had pushed into his spinal cord, crushing his nerves and causing the paralysis.
'Three times he pulled me to my feet, then let go - leaving me to fall on the floor - before admitting he had no idea what was wrong.'įive days later, an MRI scan revealed an eight-inch mass on his spine and Chris was transferred to the spinal unit of Salford Royal Hospital. 'The first doctor who saw me must have thought I was faking,' Chris says. (The couple have since had a son, Jamie.) Lisa, now 39, a telecommunications worker, stayed with their older daughter, Stacey, then 17, and Abigail, then two months, as Chris was rushed to Royal Bolton Hospital. 'I was terrified and woke my wife, Lisa, crying, asking her to get an ambulance.' Three days later, Chris tried to get up to go to the bathroom in the middle of the night but was unable to move his legs. 'But over the next few days the pain became more intense.' By this point, in December 2006, Chris also had a high temperature, felt hot and shivery, and had aches and pains - he assumed it was the flu. 'I thought I'd pulled a muscle,' he says. His ordeal started two weeks after his cut, when he felt a sharp twinge in his lower back - slightly to the right of his spine. Chris lost four stone in six weeks and was off work for 18 months. 'I just remember catching my right hand on something sharp,' says Chris, 45, an IT specialist from Bolton, Lancashire.īut this apparently innocuous wound led to an abscess on his spine and then sepsis - a life-threatening response to infection that kills more people a year than breast and bowel cancer combined. He can't even recall which digit was affected. 'I just popped a plaster on and forgot about it - I've had worse cuts opening an envelope.' When Chris Aldred cut his finger moving a computer, he didn't give it a second thought. Standing tall: After contracting a life-threatening infection from a small cut in his finger, Chris was left unable to walk