A brave nurse who said she was ‘not having quality of life but enduring it’ after losing both her legs and an arm to sepsis has been found dead aged 53.
Jayne Carpenter, from Merthyr Tydfil in South Wales, was admitted into intensive care after her chesty cough developed into sepsis in May 2016.
She spent nine weeks in a coma fighting for her life and her husband Rob Carpenter, 56, was told she would need multiple amputations to survive.
Ms Carpenter lost her left arm below the elbow, both of her legs and four fingers on her right hand in total.
She was sadly found dead at the home she shared with her heartbroken husband on Monday, who wrote on Facebook: ‘The brightest star in my sky has burnt out.’
Jayne Carpenter (pictured), from Merthyr Tydfil in South Wales, was admitted into intensive care after her chesty cough developed into sepsis in May 2016
South Wales Police confirmed the sudden dead of Ms Carpenter, adding the death is ‘not being treated as suspicious.’
Tributes have flooded the nurse’s social media account since news of her death emerged, with friends and family describing her as ‘a kind and beautiful lady.’
Others remembered Ms Carpenter as someone who ‘shone bright and inspired so many people’.
The hospital nurse had been fundraising for pioneering limb surgery not currently available on the NHS ahead of her death, raising £20,000 of the £265,000 target.
She said on her GoFundMe page: ‘The surgery will enable me to live the life of an able-bodied person.
‘All the things I loved doing and my independence were stripped from me overnight.’
She spent nine weeks in a coma fighting for her life and her husband Rob Carpenter, 56, was told she would need multiple amputations to survive. Pictured: Ms Carpenter
Ms Carpenter added the NHS had advised her to ‘compromise’ and carry on with her metal prosthetic legs.
‘The NHS prosthetic provision is not sufficient to allow me to live the active life I want to lead,’ she said. ‘This to me is not having quality of life but enduring it.’
On her page, the Nurse Practitioner explained she had attended a GP Out of Hours surgery expecting to be prescribed antibiotics for a chest infection on May 1, 2016.
However, she soon discovered she was developing sepsis – a life-threatening reaction to an infection which occurs when your immune system overreacts and begins to damage your body’s own tissues.
She later suffered from septic shock and multiple organ failure, before being placed in a medically induced coma and a ventilator for three months.
‘I required multiple limb amputations as a life saving procedure,’ Ms Carpenter explained.
‘I had gone from being a healthy, fit person to being critically ill in a flash and as a result of sepsis I ended up being a quadruple amputee.
‘My life after sepsis has left me with lifetime, life changing disabilities.’
After recovering, the nurse gave educational talks on the dangers of sepsis – which kills more than 30,000 people in the UK each year.
Ms Carpenter also participated in fun runs after recovering and raised thousands for sepsis charities.
She previously revealed that after her multiple amputations she didn’t feel good enough for her husband and told him he could ‘walk away.’
But he replied: ‘I married you not for your arms or legs but because I love you’.
The couple pinned their hopes on private osseointegration surgery, which attaches artificial limbs to a patient’s bone.
There were, however, fears she didn’t have enough bone left for the procedure to work.
Ms Carpenter was found dead at the home she shared with her husband and their Weimeraner dog Harriet on Monday.
The nurse was sadly found dead at the home she shared with her heartbroken husband on Monday, who wrote on Facebook: ‘The brightest star in my sky has burnt out’
Hundreds of tributes have since flooded in praising the nurse for her courage in trying to overcome the devastating effects of sepsis.
A family friend said: ‘Jayne was an inspiration to so many. She was always bubbly and positive – she will leave a massive void.
‘It is so terribly sad – everyone will rally around Rob to give him all the support he needs.’
South Wales Police confirmed they were called to a sudden death of a 53-year-old woman in Merthyr Tydfil on December 7.
A spokesman said: The death is not being treated as suspicious and the Coroner has been informed.’