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

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.

“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.”