WHEN Joe Ford had cold-like symptoms in March 2019, he thought nothing of it, unaware his major organs were starting to shut down.
The children’s football coach went to hospital when he started suffering stomach pains, only to wake up paralysed and unable to speak.
The then 29-year-old had developed life-threatening sepsis – when the body overreacts to an infection and starts attacking healthy tissues.
Joe’s parents were told to prepare themselves because their son had just a 10 per cent chance of survival.
When Joe came round, the skin on his nose, fingers, toes and the soles of his feet had turned black and started to die as a result of the sepsis.
During his eight-month fight, which saw him put in an induced coma, doctors were unable to save his right foot.
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It was amputated after sepsis ate away at the flesh, leaving him terrified whether he would ever walk again, let alone survive.
Speaking of when he first felt unwell, Joe, from Bexley, South East London, said: “I was feeling a bit tired and groggy but nothing too out of the norm.
“I just thought that I was overworking or had a cold and didn’t think anything of it.
“I woke up one morning and had stomach pains and felt a bit sick.
“The pain didn’t go away so I went to the hospital and told the lady at the desk my symptoms but then I collapsed.”
Sepsis typically causes confusion, vomiting, extreme pain, clammy or sweaty skin, a fever and chills, high heart rate and shortness of breath.
Experts say every hour counts with sepsis, as it progresses rapidly and needs urgent treatment.
After collapsing in the emergency room in Queen Mary’s Hospital in Sidcup, Kent, Joe was blue-lighted to Princess Royal University Hospital in Farnborough, where he was put in an induced coma.
Two and a half weeks later, he was moved to the ICU in King’s College Hospital in Lambeth, London, where he spent another week in a coma.
When he finally woke, Joe was completely paralysed and unable to talk due to his body being dormant for so long.
Doctors were forced to make an incision into his neck and fit a tube to keep him breathing.
Joe said: “The next thing I remember was waking up in a hospital bed with loads of people around me telling me to stay calm. I was in and out of consciousness.
“They put me in an induced coma and pumped lots of antibiotics into me to save my life because the sepsis was attacking all of my major organs.
“Doctors told my parents I had a ten per cent chance of surviving and they should start organising my funeral because they really didn’t think I was going to make it through.
“When I woke up I was quite confused and panicky and couldn’t even ask what happened because I was paralysed and couldn’t speak.”
Joe regained his speech after three weeks, as he watched nurses dress his rotting feet every day.
He said: “I was black and blue, my face was swollen and all the tips of my body – my nose, fingers, toes and the bottom of both feet – they all went black and necrotic.
“About a week after I’d woken up my right foot wasn’t getting any better so they did an operation to take away all of the dead skin to see what was left and if there was anything they could do.
“When I woke up [from the operation] a nurse was dressing my foot and I asked her to take a picture of it – it was quite shocking and horrible to see.”
I was in absolute pieces, thinking, ‘Am I going to walk again, what will my life be like?’
Joe
A photo shows Joe’s foot completely ravaged by sepsis, with the sole removed and the insides almost entirely scooped out.
Unfortunately, Joe’s right foot was “unsalvageable”, and it was amputated in July 2019, four months after he first fell unwell.
He said: “They said they could take a skin graft from another area of my body and put it on the foot but it wouldn’t be a foot that you could walk on and I would forever be having skin problems with it.
“It would basically just be a dead limb and I wouldn’t have any quality of life with it. They gave me that option or the option to amputate.
“I was in absolute pieces thinking ‘am I going to walk again, am I going to be in a wheelchair for the rest of my life, what will my life be like?’ I was devastated.
“My passion in life is coaching children, coaching football and that was my main concern, thinking am I going to be able to do that again?”
Joe also had to have his left foot “completely reconstructed”, and also has scarring on his nose where doctors removed dead skin.
After his amputation, Joe was transferred to Lambeth Community Care Centre, in September 2019, where he was fitted with a prosthetic leg and learnt to walk again.
He also struggled to regain movement in his arms and hands, and says he now has around 75 per cent function in his hands.
Joe exceeded doctors’ expectations and, after a six-month stint in hospital, he spent only two months in rehab.
Joe continues to have therapy and massages to strengthen his hands a couple of times a month.
Joe said: “With being in a coma for three and a half weeks it’s amazing how quickly your body and nerves start to die. I had to really slowly build my body up again.
“Gradually I could start to move my head to nod and shake my head at things but it was a couple of weeks before I could even move my arms a bit so it was really frustrating.
“It’s easy to sit there and feel sorry for yourself and I definitely had days like that – the nurses had to help me with going to the toilet and showering which isn’t nice for anyone.
“Slowly they teach you and you get stronger every day and have a chance of getting back into a normal routine.”
After Joe’s own battle, he was hit with the devastating news that his dad and fellow football coach, Martin Ford, had cancer.
He passed away just months later, in May 2020.
But the devoted son has been able to keep his beloved dad’s legacy, as well as his own passion alive by continuing his football coaching business JMF Allstars.
The business, teaching almost 500 children a week, has been able to continue despite the physical obstacles Joe now faces.
Joe, who has taken a step back from coaching directly, hopes to raise awareness about sepsis and to encourage people to not ignore the symptoms if they feel unwell.
Sepsis follows an infection, whether bacterial, viral or fungal. Infections that more commonly result in sepsis include infections of the lungs, bloodstream, kidney, bladder and wounds.
Joe says doctors are not entirely sure what infection caused his sepsis.
He said: “I had no idea what sepsis was. I don’t think a lot of people know about it, it’s not really talked about a lot but it’s a deadly, silent killer.
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“One of the reasons I’ve shared [the photo of my foot] is because I don’t think people realise what sepsis does.
“It’s been a long road and there’s still a long way to go but I’m getting there.”
