Coronary heart Hero Awards: Mum defies odds to beat lethal coronary heart an infection

‘There are such a lot of factors the place I really feel I may have died, and on daily basis I query why I’m nonetheless right here… as a result of I didn’t suppose I might be.’

Sitting on a bench looking over the dock in Bristol, Kerrie Kent had advised her future husband Tom she had congenital coronary heart illness and he or she ‘would in all probability be in for a little bit of a tough journey in life’.

‘I advised him that was his alternative to get out now,’ mentioned the now 39-year-old. ‘But it surely was too late: we have been too in love at that time.’

And a tough journey Kerrie has had since – however sadly she underestimated that reality.

The East Sussex resident was born with the situation, which is a beginning defect affecting how the guts operates, however was undiagnosed till she was 5 months outdated.

‘Regardless of being pale, having chilly legs and ft, bouts of extreme sweating and laboured respiration my mum was repeatedly advised by docs I might “develop out” of my difficulties,’ Kerrie advised Metro.co.uk.

After she was identified she had surgical procedure to appropriate narrowing of the aorta and instantly ‘began to thrive’, and lived a ‘regular childhood’ other than occasional check-ups.

It wasn’t till she was 28 years outdated and dwelling in London that issues modified after she attended a routine take a look at on the Royal Brompton Hospital.

‘Through the MRI scan I may hear them saying that one thing didn’t look proper, and it was instantly apparent that one thing was significantly flawed,’ mentioned Kerrie, who’s now an artist and inventive director of her personal enterprise, The Model Studio.

‘I’d had an inclination earlier than that as a result of I’d been getting panic assaults after I was on the Tube, and I didn’t perceive why as a result of there have been no different signs.’

They found her aortic valve wasn’t working successfully and was letting blood again into her coronary heart – and it had enlarged to twice its regular measurement.

Six months later she had open coronary heart surgical procedure to switch it with a pig tissue valve, after which needed to have it changed once more with a cow tissue valve in 2015.

Saying she married Tom, 40, in 2013, Kerrie mentioned: ‘Oddly sufficient, having a child was one thing I by no means actually thought of. However I used to be advised on the Brompton my situation would make it tough for me to hold a child, and it will have to be pre-planned if we determined that’s what we needed and I’d need to be below shut supervision.

‘I assumed, “I bloody effectively will.”‘

However in Might final yr Kerrie mentioned she ‘bought actually, actually sick’ and 2021 turned ‘essentially the most traumatic yr’ of her life.

‘The primary I knew was that I used to be presenting to potential new shopper and all of a sudden I began to slur my phrases,’ she mentioned.

‘I advised myself to maintain sipping my drink and I’d be okay. Then I felt breathless like somebody was stepping on my chest.’

When she bought residence, she known as her husband to inform him one thing was significantly flawed.

‘Deep down I knew I used to be dying, though I didn’t inform him that,’ she mentioned.

Kerrie had a really excessive temperature which led to medics considering she had coronavirus – however the subsequent day Tom took her to A&E at Tunbridge Wells Hospital in Pembury.

It was then docs discovered she had sepsis brought on by infective endocarditis, a uncommon and probably deadly an infection of the internal lining of the guts. Her organs together with her bowels and liver had began to close down.

‘A pores and skin bug had bought into my bloodstream from a small lower someplace,’ Kerrie mentioned. ‘The bug went straight to the weak a part of my coronary heart which is the changed valve and sat on it. It mainly destroyed my coronary heart.

‘I used to be advised it had been happening for as much as two months with out me figuring out.’

Kerrie was advised her solely likelihood to outlive was to bear very dangerous surgical procedure – which left her saying goodbye to her household.

The operation took 19 hours, and a vein was taken out of her left leg to place into her coronary heart which has left Kerrie disabled.

Her surgeon mentioned ‘he’d by no means seen such an contaminated coronary heart earlier than’, Kerrie added.

Her chest was open for 4 days, she was in an induced coma for 20 days and   then in hospital for 3 months.

As she slowly emerged from her coma, her husband Tom advised her, ‘You should come again to us now.’

Kerrie mentioned: ‘And from that second on, I did.

‘I needed to relearn to talk and stroll and use my palms once more… it was horrific. 

‘At that time in hospital after I was going by means of this, I simply didn’t take into consideration the very fact I had a toddler, as a result of my physique was simply preserving its vitality for the very important issues. I nonetheless really feel responsible about that.

‘I don’t even suppose the docs and the surgeon may imagine that I had made it…as a result of I couldn’t.’

Though her kidneys have been left badly broken, working at 36% of their most operate, docs are ‘very completely satisfied’ with the situation of her coronary heart for the time being.

‘I haven’t requested about what the long run holds as a result of I’m scared to listen to the reply,’ Kerrie added. ‘I do know it’s taken years off my life although.

‘Proper now I really feel actually good though I’ve PTSD due to what I went by means of final yr.