I brushed off my sore throat as a hangover, but it turned into sepsis

Elle Black, a 21‑year‑old journalism student in her first year at Cardiff University, woke up after a night out in February 2024 feeling dreadful and assumed her sore throat was merely a hangover. She recalled, “I got location successful the aboriginal hours of the greeting and the backmost of my pharynx started to hurt, which I thought was unusual because I didn't have any other symptoms yet,” and decided to take ibuprofen, shrug it off and go to sleep. The next day she awoke “completely exhausted, no energy, really high fever,” as she described: “I took some ibuprofen, shrugged it off, went to sleep. I woke up the next day completely exhausted, no energy, really high fever.” Despite the worsening condition, Elle attended a planned brunch with her parents, but alarm bells rang when her tonsils swelled and she could not eat. She booked a private GP appointment earlier that day. The doctor diagnosed laryngitis and prescribed antibiotics. She later said, “I was so drowsy, so confused, almost delirious,” and could not recall much of the following day, though she had told her mother, “I can't feel my legs.” Elle reached hospital quickly, noting, “'I got to hospital, triaged within 15 minutes, it was all amazingly quick.'” Medical staff identified quinsy—a pus‑filled abscess arising from tonsillitis—which had progressed to sepsis. She spent two days at the University Hospital of Wales receiving intravenous antibiotics before making a full recovery. The doctors warned her, “'[The doctors] said if I'd left it another day, it could have been quite different,' said Elle,” adding that she had not previously considered sepsis in such a context: “'You don't really hear about sepsis in this context,' she added.” Her parents were shocked by her appearance. Elle said, “'It was unusual for my parents to hear this had happened to their daughter. My mum says it's the scariest thing she's ever gone through.'” and “'They didn't expect me to look that dreadful, they'd never seen me like that. I was completely pale, clammy. They are quite traumatised by it.'” Afterward she felt exhausted for a couple of weeks and remained “a bit out of it for it for a couple of months, just really tired, it does take it out of you. But, other than