A story of loss...
On June 12, 2000 Lisa Burnette entered Royal London Hospital suffering from meningococcal septicaemia - a life threatening infection. After the removal of her legs, nine operations and five months in hospital Lisa began a grueling recovery process. Moving back to her native Australia, Lisa had to leave behind the carefree lifestyle of her early twenties and begin a new life; life as an amputee. It was to be the start of a powerful journey for Lisa. Of the strenuous physical challenges to recovery mapped against the inevitable emotional hurdles. It has been a journey with numerous layers, a journey she continues to this day and a journey that Lisa now makes step by step.
A story of luck...
Lisa was admitted to hospital 18 hours after her first symptom. The doctors told her family she had only 5% chance of surviving. But survive she did.
“Little is known about why one person will contract meningococcal and another will not. I was one person in 73,000 unlucky enough to succumb. The risk factors include age (0-5 and 15-25); prior respiratory infection (damaging the mucosae and allowing the bacteria in); smoking or exposure to cigarette smoke (again damaging the mucosae); overcrowded living conditions; and a range of factors that could be related to any illness (poor diet, lack of sleep). The bacteria lives in the nasal cavity of around 10% of the population at any one time, moving around, as bacteria are wont to do, and most people are possibly immune, explaining the rarity of the infection. So the person who is not immune, as with any disease, encounters the bacteria – in my case possibly through the multitudes of people I came into contact with at work; in the tiny flat; and at the nightclubs sharing drinks and other bodily fluids. The bacteria found its way to the wrong part of my body – my bloodstream, entering via the back of my nose, damaged by my recent cold and exposure to cigarette smoke, and started to multiply, setting up an infection that my immune system, challenged by my hectic lifestyle and corresponding lack of sleep, could not contain.”
Learning to Walk
