Lisa Cox survived sepsis. 20 years later, she reunites with the man she credits with saving her life.
After suffering sepsis and a stroke, Lisa Cox OAM is so grateful to the hospital team who gave her back her life.
Here she shares her story with Lizzie Wilson and Woman’s Day magazine to mark World Sepsis Day, September 13.
It’s a precious moment disability advocate Lisa Cox has waited half her lifetime for. After more than 20 years since that near fatal day when she suffered a stroke, she finally got to reunite with the man who saved her life.
When Lisa finally came face-to-face recently with ICU Professor John Fraser at Brisbane’s Prince Charles Hospital, unsurprisingly there wasn’t a dry eye in the place. “There were all sorts of emotions – here is this brilliant and highly qualified specialist, and what immediately struck me is how incredibly humble he is,” Lisa, 45, tells Woman’s Day. “We chatted for over an hour. How do you thank someone for the gift of a life I love?”
CCRG Founder and Director, Professor John Fraser treated Lisa in ICU at The Prince Charles Hospital over 20 years ago.
CCRG Founder and Director Professor John Fraser said upon meeting his past patient, “seeing Lisa not just surviving, but thriving, that’s what I signed up for all those years ago. As an ICU Professor, sadly, it doesn’t always have a happy ending,” says John.
They first came together in 2005, when a healthy Lisa, then 24, was living the dream, moving to Melbourne and forging a successful career in advertising. It was while waiting at Tullamarine airport for a flight to visit family in Queensland that she collapsed. “I had a brain haemorrhage and was rushed to intensive care, and was thankfully medevaced home into the care of Professor Fraser and his team,” she recalls.
Lisa developed sepsis, which is when the body’s immune system has an extreme response to infection. She was put into an induced coma for three weeks, and life support for two months.
“Surgeons had no choice but to amputate my left leg, all remaining toes, and nine of my fingertips. I’ve had heart surgery twice and a total hip replacement. Today, I use a wheelchair full-time and wear a prosthetic leg.”
John and Lisa were both named on the Australia Day Honour List earlier this year.
And, as fate would have it, Lisa’s Medal of the Order of Australia on this year’s Australia Day Honours List provided her with an opportunity to finally meet the man who gifted her a second chance at life. “I discovered John was being honoured with an Order of Australia for distinguished service to medicine and global research – and I thought he probably won’t remember me,” she says smiling.
She was wrong, according to the good professor! “I was on the tarmac with her dad Bruce when the air ambulance landed all those years ago. It wasn’t long before we realised she’s a fighter,” he says.
Lisa Cox OAM was awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia for service to people with disability. Image courtesy: Stu Riley
John Fraser AO was named an Officer of the Order of Australia for distinguished service to medicine as an intensive care physician and surgeon, and to global critical care research. Image courtesy: Stu Riley
With that trademark fighting spirit, Lisa is now an internationally acclaimed disability advocate, and is currently undertaking a PhD at Griffith University. Though blessed with an incredible family – mum Judy, dad Bruce, sister Tracey and brother David – it’s her husband Ren, who she met in 2010, who is Lisa’s biggest fan. “He is a fantastic supporter of my work, and we have very similar, purpose-driven values, and like to give back wherever we can,” she says proudly.
With World Sepsis Day on September 13, Professor Fraser says it’s all about improving patient outcomes. “Our team at CCRG lead the world with their investigations of new treatments for sepsis,” he explains. “Yet we’ve had to put the brakes on this life-saving research due to lack of funding. We want to continue to save more lives like Lisa, and provide hope to the millions that face this deadly beast each year.”
For Lisa, every day is a reminder just how strong she is. “If you had told me at 24 my life journey, and that I would be named in the Australia Day Honours alongside the very man who saved my life, I would have just laughed!
“John is the first to say this is a team sport, and that he couldn’t do his job without the dedicated health workers and all the other medics. So, to my team – thank you for my beautiful life.”
Dr Nchafatso Obonyo leads CCRG’s sepsis research program, but we have had to put the breaks on this imperative life-saving research due to lack of funding.
Sepsis kills at least 11 million people every year – 1 person every 2.8 seconds globally.
Once associated only with low-income settings, sepsis kills more people in Australia each year than road vehicle accidents, breast cancer and prostate cancer combined. The sneaky infection that can creep through an otherwise healthy body in hours, is the leading cause of presentations to emergency departments costing the country billions in health dollars.
Together with collaborators from across Australia and globally, Dr Nchafatso Obonyo is leading new research to investigate if administering blood pressure medicine can help protect vital organs from septic shock by narrowing the blood vessels.
This approach is a total paradigm shift to current understanding of sepsis and how patients are treated in the critical ‘golden hour’ after the devasting disease has been diagnosed.
“There is quite a lot of work we need to do and unfortunately, we have hit a roadblock on our path to clinical trials due to lack of funding.
“Today’s research is tomorrow’s treatment. We’ve been working for more than a decade to ensure a brighter future for patients who develop sepsis.
“I’m confident the next big innovation in the way we treat the disease is within reach, we just need help to cross the finish line," said Dr Obonyo.
You can help support researchers like Dr Obonyo via the button below.