Emma Cutts' story

Hi my name’s Emma. Two weeks after my 18th birthday I became very ill but I just thought it was a normal cold.  It was the weekend and my boyfriend came to stay. My body felt all stiff going hot and cold like how you feel when you have a cold.

I went to bed that night and my boyfriend stayed up all night watching me go hot and cold, getting me water and keeping me warm.

I got up the next morning still feeling stiff but at this point I was feeling worse and could not stop being sick every two seconds.

I was getting dressed when I saw the rash all over me. I called my mum to come upstairs to have a look and straight away she did the glass over the rash but it didn’t go.

We when straight away to Harlow Hospital and when we got there I couldn’t get out of the car so my boyfriend called for help. I was put into a room but I don’t remember a lot after that, only that I just could not look at the light – it was killing me and I felt like my head was banging.

A day had gone past and my mum was by my side telling me what was happening. I didn’t take it in at first, I just wanted to sleep. By day five I was having visitors but they had to wear masks. It was quite shocking at first but I got used to it.

Overall I was in hospital for 10 days and how happy I was when I got out. I felt great, had no after effects and went back to work the next week.

EMMA CUTTS
MARCH 2011