'I thought I had the flu': Mom nearly died after dismissing deadly sepsis symptoms

In the wake of NASCAR star Kyle Busch’s death from sepsis, a Virginia Beach mother who almost lost her life to the deadly condition is sharing her harrowing experience to raise awareness.

In 2015, Audrey Wiggins was a healthy 31-year-old when she thought she’d come down with the flu. Instead, her condition spiraled into a severe case of sepsis that left her in the ICU for 10 days, including five days in a medically induced coma. 

Now recovered, Wiggins – who is married to professional golfer Marc Leishman – is dedicated to raising awareness about the condition through her nonprofit organization, the Begin Again Foundation. She has also written a children's book aimed at helping families recognize the warning signs.

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Wiggins’ ordeal began when she began to feel ill one evening while caring for her sons, then 19 months and 3 years old, while her husband was traveling.

"I had never actually had the flu before, but I was achy, feverish and cold. And so I thought, this seems like the flu," she told Fox News Digital during an on-camera interview.

As the days went on, Wiggins started to feel worse. Her fever spiked higher and she developed severe stomach issues.

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"At one point, I actually thought I was going a little bit crazy, because my right elbow and left big toe started hurting – it was the most random thing. I hadn't injured myself," she said. "I was really confused as to what was going on."

When Wiggins became too weak to care for her sons and started to have nosebleeds, her friend insisted that she see a doctor.

At urgent care, Wiggins’ temperature and heart rate were abnormally high, and her blood pressure was dangerously low. She was taken by ambulance to the emergency room.

While today’s hospitals have "come a long way" toward sepsis awareness and recognition, Wiggins noted that wasn’t the case in 2015.

"They took a very long time to figure out what was going wrong with me," she said, adding that doctors at first thought she was afflicted with autoimmune diseases. 

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"They kept testing me for different things. Eventually, they admitted me, and I was in the ICU for a total of 10 days – five of which were in a medically induced coma."

The sepsis ultimately turned into acute respiratory distress syndrome.

"I very much remember not being able to breathe," Wiggins recalled. "That was by far the scariest part. It got to the point where I had to pause between every word to take a breath, and it was basically like sipping air."

At one point, she later learned, there was a "good chance" she wasn't going to wake up from the coma.

"When I finally did wake up, it was quite the process of relearning how to walk again, dealing with at-home physical therapy and being on a PICC line (peripherally inserted central catheter)," Wiggins shared.

The first year of recovery was "very difficult," she said. "My immune system was so compromised that I was sick constantly."

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Today, Wiggins says she is healthy, but that her memory "is not what it used to be" and that she gets fatigued more often.

The original cause of her sepsis remains unclear, she said, but it may have been linked to her recent IUD removal.

"I did have the diagnosis of toxic shock syndrome, but I also had tonsillitis, strep throat, a UTI and pneumonia," she said. "I was a very, very sick person."

In severe cases, infection can spread into the bloodstream, triggering the widespread, life-threatening inflammatory response that is sepsis. 

It can quickly lead to tissue damage, organ failure and death if not treated right away, according to Fox News senior medical analyst Dr. Marc Siegel.

"The body reacts by making inflammatory chemicals. It’s the immune system revving up … but it can hurt more than help," he previously told Fox News Digital.

Wiggins explained the response with an analogy: "Instead of your body sending out the Navy SEALs, it sends out the entire U.S. Armed Forces."

As sepsis worsens, it can cause a drop in blood pressure and interfere with the delivery of oxygen to the body’s tissues, potentially leading to lactic acidosis — a dangerous buildup of lactic acid in the bloodstream.

Organ failure is a serious risk, particularly affecting the kidneys, Siegel warned.

"The kidneys fail, toxins from the kidneys build up, blood pressure goes down, fever goes up, the lungs fail — something called ARDS," he said.

ARDS — acute respiratory distress syndrome — occurs when inflammation causes fluid to leak into the lungs, making it difficult for oxygen to reach the bloodstream.

Common warning signs of sepsis can include high fever, confusion, rapid breathing, extreme weakness, low blood pressure, fast heart rate and bluish or mottled skin, per the CDC. Patients can also feel very cold and experience extreme pain, Wiggins added.

After Wiggins was discharged from the hospital, she was struck by how little people knew about sepsis, which led her to start the Begin Again Foundation.

"I had never heard of sepsis – and I realized that was why I almost died," she shared. "If I had known what the symptoms were and what to look out for, I would have sought treatment earlier."

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The expensive medical costs – for everything from home healthcare to antibiotics to a walker and other equipment – were also shocking. "I learned that sepsis is the most expensive hospitalization bill there is," Wiggins said. "I remember thinking, ‘What if we didn't have the money to afford this?’"

"In a time when people are struggling, if I can help ease that burden – even just the tiniest bit, so they can focus more on the recovery – it is my absolute passion and honor to continue to do that. And that is the main focus of the organization."

Wiggins’ children’s book, "Katie Koala's Biggest Bite," focuses on a young girl who gets injured and becomes ill, then her mother takes her to the doctor soon enough to catch sepsis before it becomes life-threatening.

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"My goal for this book is that it will be in both little hands and their parents' bigger hands … and that by reading this story, they learn about what sepsis is and what symptoms to look out for," she said.

"I've read too many stories of parents who did seek treatment, who took their child to the doctor, and were told it was just a virus."

Wiggins said the simplest thing parents can do is to ask the doctor: "Could this be sepsis?"

"Just asking that question could lead them on the path to run a different lab panel or look at the symptoms in a different way," she added.

Every hour that sepsis goes untreated, the mortality rate increases by up to 8%, Wiggins noted.

"Time truly is the most important thing – and getting that early treatment can prevent you from even being hospitalized."

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One of the most important things people should know, according to Wiggins, is that sepsis can happen from any infection. 

"The most common causes are respiratory infections, UTIs and kidney stones, but it can happen from a cut. It can happen from strep throat, the flu," she warned.