Woman struggles to breathe as doctor makes horrifying rare discovery in her mouth

Woman struggles to breathe as doctor makes horrifying rare discovery in her mouth

A young woman had been enjoying a "quiet dinner" with friends when she suddenly couldn't breathe and doctors made a shocking discovery that almost cost her life.

Woman struggles to breathe as doctor makes horrifying rare discovery in her mouth.. read story  

Caitlin Alsop had felt a bit unwell but a doctor reassured her she had the flu, then days later she was put in a coma and nearly died because of an infected wisdom tooth

A young woman had been enjoying a "quiet dinner" with friends when she suddenly couldn't breathe and doctors made a shocking discovery that almost cost her life.

Caitlin Alsop, 23 at the time, had felt a bit unwell days before the emergency but a doctor initially said she just had the flu. But then her life almost changed forever because of an infected wisdom tooth. She said: "I was with my friends having a quiet dinner and it felt [all of a sudden] like I had bitten my tongue. [My tongue] was quite swollen, and my airway started to close a little bit. It was so difficult to breathe, and I couldn’t actually talk", she told SEEN TV.

She went to her local hospital and was taken in an ambulance with breathing assistance. She said she was so breathless she thought she was "going to die." At the hospital, doctors assumed Caitlin was having a severe allergic reaction, known as anaphylaxis. They treated her for this so pumped her full of adrenaline and steroids but there was no improvement in her condition. She kept passing in and out of consciousness, with her skin turning red and blue.

Caitlin continued: "And then my tongue went black. And that was where there were talks of amputation …[They were] trying to figure out what was going on. [Finally] there was an anaesthetist who actually said, ‘We don’t know what it is, but it could be Ludwig’s Angina’."

That is a rare bacterial infection that affects your neck and the floor of your mouth, caused by a trapped wisdom tooth. In Caitlin's case, this led to sepsis which is a life-threatening response to an infection that can lead to organ failure. She said she had "absolutely no pain, no symptoms and no issues" with her teeth - which she called a "plot twist."

Caitlin was put in a coma to preserve her oxygen, while the problem tooth, along with another wisdom tooth, was taken out and drains were cut into her throat to help relieve the swelling. When she woke up Caitlin was told how bad things had looked while she was sleeping and was shocked to discover she almost lost her tongue.

"The end of my tongue did melt off though, so I still have a lisp and I had to learn to talk and eat again, but I am grateful they caught it in time," she said. Her friends now call her 'Dory' because she has difficulty with her memory, a common side effect of going into a coma. Four years later, she said she is still scared every time she gets an infection, fearing her body will start to "shut down again", but is making it her mission to raise awareness of sepsis.

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