A man in the United Kingdom suffered from sepsis and almost lost his life after biting his own fingernails.
According to The Sun, Luke Hanoman, 28, from Birkdale, Southport, started experiencing flu-like symptoms including cold sweats and shivering. He was rushed to the hospital, where the doctors told him that he is "lucky to be alive."
He was treated for sepsis and had to spend four days in the hospital. "It was quite scary. I was on a 24-hour observation with two drips in my arms constantly. They told me I was lucky to make it so long. I was close to septic shock," Hanoman told The Sun.
During the interaction with the news outlet, Hanoman said that he used to bite his nails regularly, which led to this life-threatening disease.
"I used to bite my nails all the time. It was nervous thing," he told The Sun. "And one day I bit the skin down the side of my nail. It hurt a bit but I didn't think anything of it. I was in work throughout the week and started to get flu-like symptoms which were gradually getting worse."
Hanoman, 28, who is a father of two sons, further added, "I had cold sweats, I was shaking, and then going hot. And then my finger started swelling up and I had this unbearable throbbing. I started going really weird and I couldn't focus."
What is sepsis?
According to Mayo Clinic, Sepsis is "a potentially life-threatening complication of an infection. Sepsis occurs when chemicals released into the bloodstream to fight the infection trigger inflammatory responses throughout the body. This inflammation can trigger a cascade of changes that can damage multiple organ systems, causing them to fail."
According to National Health Service, nearly 37,000 people suffering from sepsis die every year. Across the world, at least 1.5 million people are diagnosed with the disease.
About 250,000 people die from it in the United States, according to the reports by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
Dr. Ron Daniels, chief executive of the UK Sepsis Trust, told the Sun, "Stories like Luke's highlight how sepsis is a condition that can strike anyone at any age. It's therefore vital that people are aware of what to look for if they or a loved one are deteriorating with an infection.
"If someone has an infection and something doesn't feel quite right and if they feel more unwell than they have ever felt before, be prepared to Just Ask: Could it be Sepsis."
