GP’s receptionist, 25, has leg amputated after hot tub party gave her deadly blood infection

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A GP’s receptionist had to have her leg and all her toes amputated after a hot tub party gave her a deadly blood infection.

Lauren Briggs, 25, from Corringham, Essex, spent an evening having fun with her friends in a hot tub in January this year.

But she woke up the next day unable to breath and was rushed to hospital.

There, she was diagnosed with life-threatening blood infection meningococcal septicaemia. 

While doctors were able to save her life, Ms Briggs had to undergo an amputation of her right leg below the knee and the toes on her left leg – leaving her wheelchair bound.

Medics then told Ms Briggs that the hot tub could have been the cause of her infection. 

She said she was ‘devastated’ after lifting up her hospital bed covers to see her amputated leg – and now feels ‘trapped’ in her own body. 

She explained: ‘The night before, I had been in my friend’s hot tub and doctors told me I may have contracted the infection through a small cut on my foot whilst in the hot tub.

‘Hot tubs are filled with bacteria so it’s likely that could have been the cause.

‘I went to sleep that night feeling a bit nauseous but my friend found me in the early hours of the next morning gasping for breath on the floor.

‘The next thing I remember is waking up in the hospital wondering what was going on.

‘I was put on life support and was completely dependent on the machines for 48 hours.

‘My feet were jet black; they did multiple skin grafts from my left thigh to rebuild my feet but in the end, they couldn’t save my right leg or toes and they had to be amputated to save my life’.

Her mother, Tracey, 58, added: ‘I went straight to the hospital when I found out what had happened and when I arrived, I didn’t recognise my own daughter because she was so swollen and blue.

‘I thought they had taken me to the wrong window. 

‘When I saw her I fell to the floor and begged God to save her and not to let her go.

‘She’s my only child – she’s my baby and doctors told me it was unlikely she would survive longer than 48 hours.

‘They would regularly take Lauren down to theatre to clean the feet up and check everything and on this one particular day, she was in there all day and I knew something must have been happening.

‘When I found out about the amputations, I dropped down on the floor again because I knew how this would impact her quality of life.’

Miss Briggs was  discharged on April 30 and her life changed completely.

She used to live at home with her mother, but Miss Briggs now needs to stay in specialist accommodation that can cater for her wheelchair.

She is currently fundraising after being left unable to work as a GP receptionist due to her condition. Her illness left her with a severe speech impairment.

Miss Briggs added: ‘I had no idea about the amputations because I felt like I still had both my feet – I lifted the covers up and saw and was devastated.

‘I’m currently staying in a mother and baby hostel because they couldn’t find anywhere else for me to stay.

‘I just want to live a life as normal as possible; I haven’t even got a prosthetic leg yet.

‘I was always on the go before this, hardly ever sitting down and now I have to rely on people to do anything.

‘It feels like I’m trapped inside my own body and I just want to get out.

‘It has affected my mental health drastically; my life has been turned upside down.

‘Doctors think there was a small cut on my foot that caused the meningitis.

‘I wasn’t aware of it but I went in my friend’s hot tub that night and that holds a lot of bacteria.’