Woman who beat odds against meningitis trains as nurse in thanks to London hospital that saved her life

Trainee Sophie Royce surrounded by a team of consultants, nurses and managers.
Ross Lydall @RossLydall23 November 2017

A young woman who nearly died from meningitis is training to become a nurse at the hospital that saved her life.

Sophie Royce, 25, suffered multiple organ failure, went into cardiac arrest and was given a one per cent chance of survival after contracting meningococcal septicaemia five years ago.

A specialist team from St Thomas’ was sent to her local hospital in Surrey to stabilise her, place her on an ECMO machine, which takes over the functions of the heart and lungs, and transfer her to London. She was able to return home from St Thomas’, in Lambeth, to her home in Reigate two months later.

The experience led her to switch from being a childminder. She now is in her final year of a nursing course at London South Bank University and is doing her practical training at Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust. Ms Royce said: “There’s no way I would have considered becoming a nurse if it hadn’t been for what happened to me. I was in hospital for a long time and being around nurses and seeing the difference they make to patients made me realise that’s what I wanted to do.

St Thomas’ Hospital nurse Sophie Royce. 

“It was a lovely coincidence to find out that I would be doing my training at Guy’s and St Thomas’ after the teams here did so much for me. I’d love to work here full-time eventually.”

The illness occurs when meningococcal bacteria multiply in the blood. St Thomas’ is the largest of five NHS hospitals offering ECMO (Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation) therapy, caring for more than 100 patients a year.

The machine operates in a similar way to dialysis for kidney failure, continuously taking blood, adding oxygen and removing carbon dioxide before returning it to the body. It is used on patients who have “reached the limits of conventional medical therapy”.

Ms Royce, who has become an ambassador for Meningitis Research Foundation, said she owed her life to the ECMO team. “They don’t get as much recognition as they should and they are the most humble people I’ve met,” she said. “I owe them everything.”

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in