'Fit and healthy' man, 20, forced to have both legs amputated after mistaking symptoms for the flu

A young man considered 'fit and healthy' has lost both his legs after shrugging off alarming symptoms as the flu.

Levi Dewey, from Derbyshire, UK, was an active 20-year-old who loved playing football until a life-threatening illness struck him down out of the blue.

He first fell sick with flu-like symptoms in December 2022 which he treated with over-the-counter drugs.

However, his mom, Lara said it was her 'mother's intuition' that told her something was seriously wrong when he failed to improve and was struggling with 'quick and shallow breathing'.

She said: "He was dosed up on cold and flu tablets but he had a high temperature that wasn’t cooling and he was really drowsy, with no appetite.

"He just wasn’t my Levi."

The young man shrugged off his symptoms (SWNS)

Levi's parents then took him to the hospital where medics diagnosed him with pneumococcal pneumonia before he went into septic shock and suffered multiple organ failure.

After being put into an induced coma, Levi had extracorporeal membrane oxygenation treatment at the hospital, which involved pumping blood outside the body through an artificial lung to remove carbon dioxide and add oxygen back to the blood.

At one point, Lara and his father Neil were told their son's condition had deteriorated and were unsure if he would make it through the night.

The former JCB welder had just a 30 percent chance of surviving.

He had a small chance of surviving the ordeal (SWNS)

Lara said: "We had no idea what sepsis was at that point or how bad it could be.

"I thought it was something that only affected older people, or something you got from a cut, so when I saw him in the hospital bed and he was a mottled colour and his legs were blue, you could see where the sepsis had got hold of him.

"I'd never seen anything like it in my life."

His parents were then told their son's legs would need to be amputated below the knee, which went ahead just two days before his 21st birthday.

Levi, now 23, recalled: "I woke up and Christmas had passed, it was like my life was flipped upside down.

Levi has had to make some adaptations to his life (SWNS)

"I was relying on my family to tell me what had happened, it was such a blur.

"It was really difficult because I nearly died and I am so grateful to be here but I had to wrap my head around spending the rest of my life without my legs."

He said he struggled to come to terms with what happened during his recovery, from the mental toll to the physical change.

He said: "When I got home, it didn’t really feel like home because I was stuck living in my front room.

"I couldn’t get changed by myself or even sit up and because I lost my feet I had to relearn how to drive again with my hands. It is those things people can't really understand."

The young man has had to learn to drive again (SWNS)

Levi continued: "I am so lucky to have amazing support and I am so thankful that I am here, but getting sepsis has completely changed my life."

Neil added: "Sepsis is actually quite common but we didn’t know much about it before it affected Levi.

"What we have learned is that sepsis affects younger people differently to older people."

He said since Levi was fit and healthy, his immune system was 'masking his symptoms' up until his body couldn't anymore and he 'deteriorated rapidly'.

According to the Mayo Clinic, symptoms of sepsis include confusion, fast and shallow breathing, sweating and shivering while septic shock includes not being able to stand up and difficulty staying awake.