Nurse, 53, was found hanged by her husband, inquest hears 

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A brave nurse whose ‘independence was stripped from her overnight’ when she lost both her legs and an arm after a cough turned to sepsis was found hanged by her husband, an inquest heard.

Jayne Carpenter, 53, was left with just one limb when a simple cough in 2016 developed into neutropenic sepsis – a life-threatening reaction to an infection which occurs when the immune system overreacts and begins to damage the body’s tissues. 

The hospital nurse, who lost her left arm below the elbow, both legs and four fingers of her right hand, soon began campaigning to highlight the dangers of sepsis.  

Before her death, Jayne, who continued to dance and keep-fit using metal prosthetic legs that caused terrible pain and infections, had been fundraising money for pioneering limb surgery not available on the NHS and had raised more than £20,000 of her £265,000 target.

Her GoFundMe page read: ‘The surgery will enable me to live the life of an able-bodied person. All the things I loved doing and my independence were stripped from me overnight.’ 

She added: ‘The prosthetic provision is not sufficient to allow me to live the active life I want to lead. This to me is not having quality of life but enduring it.’

An inquest heard on the day Jayne’s death, on December 7, 2020, her husband of 22 years Robert, 56, who described his wife as his ‘brightest star’, got a call from her asking him to pick up their family dog Harriet. 

But when he arrived at their house in Merthyr Tydfil, South Wales, he found her hanged. 

In a moving post shared on social media last year husband Robert said: ‘She was in constant pain and knew she would never get better. 

‘Covid was the tipping point, she was very down because she couldn’t dance and socialise and do the things that kept her going.’   

The heartbroken husband also described the hospital nurse as ‘an amazing person’ and said: ‘The brightest star in my sky has burnt out.’

He said the nurse has offered him the chance to walk away from their relationship but he told her: ‘I married you not for your arms or legs but because I love you.’

In a witness statement read out at Merthyr Tydfil Coroner’s Court last year, Robert went on to describe his wife as a ‘happy, bubbly, sociable person’ who had a passion for ‘travelling around the world’ when they first met. 

The nurse, who suffered from depression and chronic pain, had twice taken an overdose – and the restrictions of the coronavirus pandemic stopped her from enjoying the things that were important to her, the inquest heard.

On the day she died, tests showed she had drunk ‘a large quantity of alcohol’ but police did not find a note stating her intention to take her own life.   

In 2016, the nurse went to her local GP with a cough and what she thought was a simple cold before she quickly deteriorated and was rushed into intensive care at the Prince Charles Hospital in Wales.

She was diagnosed with pneumonia and the blood infection sepsis and put on a ventilator as her health continued to decline. 

As gangrene set into many of her limbs doctors decided to amputate both her legs and an arm in a desperate attempt to save her life. 

The nurse had been in a coma for nine weeks when her husband Robert was told she needed a triple amputation with two teams of surgeons spending five hours to save her life. 

After coming around from nine weeks in a coma she asked Robert: ‘Why did you let me live?’

In 2017, Jayne said she was  unable to wash, feed and walk after her ordeal and said it was ‘very hard to accept’.

She told Wales Online: ‘I could not wash, feed, walk, make myself a drink, or even sit up on my own. It was hard, very hard, to accept the new me.’  

She added: ‘I am living proof that none of us knows what is around the corner. Life can change beyond recognition in five minutes.

‘I’d been fiercely independent and adored my keep-fit regime and long walks on the beach with our dog Harriet.’

The nurse also said she and her husband were ‘determined’ that her disability would not stop them from their love of travelling – as she shared her plans to travel to Vietnam and Cambodia. 

After her amputations, Robert said his wife ‘put all her effort into regaining her life’ and ‘she amazed us as a family’. 

He said that, as a sepsis awareness advocate, her experiences were used to ‘assist the education of medical students’. 

But, in November 2019, he noticed ‘a sudden decline’ in his wife’s mental health and she began drinking more alcohol, the court heard. 

Jayne has been hoping to get her old life back by having ground-breaking osseointegration surgery where a prosthetic limb would be attached to her remaining bone.

But the surgery is not available on the NHS and only £23,000 of the £265,000 needed was raised.

Jayne endured with her NHS prosthetic legs but was constantly on antibiotics for infections and strong painkillers for the nerve pain she endured. 

The lifelong nurse also felt ‘let down’ when the NHS didn’t allow her to carry on with her job at the Royal Gwent Hospital in Newport.

She became a national campaigner, warning others of the dangers of sepsis, and the Royal College of Nursing gave her a special achievement award which she was ‘very proud of’.    

Assistant Coroner for South Wales Central, Dr Sarah-Jane Richards, said: ‘Undoubtedly, her loss of limbs inflicted a life-changing loss to this previously healthy and active woman’. 

She added that her death was ‘in the context of traumatic, life-changing events having challenged her desire to live’. 

A coroner concluded a narrative verdict at the Merthyr inquest that Jayne  ‘died by self ligature in circumstances where her intention could not be discerned’.  

Last year people lined the streets to say farewell to Jayne ahead of her funeral at St Tydfil’s Old Parish Church in Merthyr Tydfil, Wales. 

Only 30 family and close friends were allowed at the church service due to Covid-19 regulations but it was streamed live on social media.  

Roberta Flack’s ‘The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face’, which was Jayne and Robert’s favourite song, ended the funeral service before the nurse’s wicker coffin was taken to Cefn Coed cemetery for burial. 

The couple’s Weimeraner dog Harriet sat on the floor next to Robert at St Tydfil’s Parish Church during the service.  

Sepsis is triggered by the immune system overreacting to an infection and attacking its own organs. 

Any type of infection — even ones that cause mild symptoms such as coughs — can trigger the life-threatening condition.  

Researchers are still baffled as to exactly why the body sometimes turns on itself and destroys its own tissue, instead of attacking the infection. 

If caught early, sepsis can be controlled but the complication is notoriously hard to spot, causing symptoms that are easily confused with flu.    

Almost 250,000 Britons are diagnosed with sepsis each year, and the condition kills around 48,999 people. 

Figures suggest 1.7million develop sepsis every year in the US, and nearly 270,000 die.  

Babies, those over the age of 75s, people with diabetes or other conditions that weaken their immune system, and women who have just given birth are most at risk.

The symptoms of sepsis include acting confused, slurred speech or not making sense; blue, pale or blotchy skin, lips or tongue; a rash that does not fade when you roll a glass over it and difficulty breathing. 

For confidential help and support call the Samaritans on 116123 or visit a Samaritans branch.