Teen has legs and fingers amputated after thinking serious illness was just the flu
Dan Seddon
Featured Image Credit: SWNS
A 19-year-old university student mistook a life-threatening illness for freshers' flu.
Ketia Moponda was only eight days into her marketing and advertising degree when she came down with a mild cough in September last year.
The teenager called her best friend and cousin throughout the next day, informing the latter that she felt like she was 'going to die'.
However, when Moponda proved unreachable the morning after, security staff at Leicester's De Montfort University and a fellow student let themselves into her room.
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Here, they discovered Moponda unconscious and she was then taken to Leicester's Royal Infirmary by ambulance.
"I have no memory of any of this but I'm lucky to be alive," she said, almost a year to the day since her nightmare began.
Moponda, who is from Wolverhampton, UK, was subsequently diagnosed with meningococcal septicaemia - a severe type of blood poisoning.
This led to bacterial meningitis and finally sepsis.
"When I got to hospital my blood oxygen level was at one per cent. The blood wasn't circulating around my body and my skin was colourless. My feet were green and swollen," the student recounted.
"My organs were failing, and doctors told my family that if I woke at all I'd likely be brain dead."
This was all while she'd been placed into a coma.
When Moponda woke up two days later, she 'couldn't see or speak' for an entire week.
The skin on her fingers and feet shrivelled up because of the lack of blood flow, and when she contracted a flesh-eating bug on her bum, medics were forced to graft skin from her thighs onto it.
Fast forward to January of this year and Moponda's fingers and thumbs were devastatingly amputated, as well as both of her legs just below the knee.
"It was terrible. I just kept crying all the time. I felt so hurt, it was killing my spirit," she added.
"I woke from the operation and just cried. I felt like my whole life had just begun and now I had to start all over again differently."
In May, she received prosthetic lower legs, but is still waiting for fingers.
Incredibly, the teen's already been able to walk unaided but she hopes to get back into running in the gym when she can.
"They don't know how I got the illness - it's heartbreaking," continued Moponda.
"At first I thought I'd give up on modelling but I won't. You don't have to hide who you are. This doesn't make me less of a person.
"I am unapologetically me and I want to help others to feel confident about who they are and how they look.
"I'm very headstrong and I plan to break all the barriers of disability."