Imagine starting your dream college life, only to face a health crisis that changes everything. That’s what happened to 19-year-old Ketia Moponda, a marketing and advertising student at De Montfort University in Leicester, UK. Just eight days into her university adventure, what she thought was a simple freshers’ flu turned into deadly bacterial meningitis and sepsis. To save her life, doctors had to amputate both her legs below the knee and all ten fingers in January 2025.
Ketia, from Wolverhampton in the West Midlands, wanted to share her story to warn other new students about the dangers of meningococcal septicaemia—a serious blood infection that spreads easily through coughing or sneezing. “I have no memory of any of this, but I’m lucky to be alive,” she told reporters. Her blood oxygen levels dropped to just 1%, her skin turned colourless, and her organs began failing. Doctors warned her family she might wake up brain dead—if she woke up at all.
How It All Started: From Cough to Crisis
It began on September 25, 2024, with a mild cough—classic freshers’ flu symptoms that many new uni students brush off. Ketia felt drowsy while eating pizza that night, so she popped some medicine and went to bed. The next morning, she woke up feeling worse. By lunchtime on September 26, she called her cousin, saying she felt like she might faint. They planned to check in the next day.
But things escalated fast. That evening, Ketia rang her best friend, whispering she felt like she was “going to die.” When she didn’t call her cousin the next morning, her friend alerted university security. Worried staff and a fellow student rushed to her dorm room and found her unconscious.
An ambulance rushed Ketia to Leicester Royal Infirmary’s ICU. Police even blue-lighted her mom and sister to the hospital. Doctors diagnosed meningococcal septicaemia, which triggered bacterial meningitis and severe sepsis. They put her in a medically induced coma. When she woke two days later, she couldn’t see or speak. “It was a whole week before I started talking, and most of the time, I didn’t know where I was,” Ketia shared.
The Grueling Hospital Battle and Amputations
In the ICU, Ketia’s fingers and feet swelled up, turned green, and shriveled from lack of blood flow—a terrifying sign of sepsis. Two weeks in, she even picked up a flesh-eating infection on her buttocks, requiring skin grafts from her thighs. By December, doctors transferred her to Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham.
On January 7, 2025, they made the tough call: amputate both legs below the knee and all fingers and thumbs. “Basically, my legs had died because of no blood going to them,” Ketia explained. Waking up after surgery, she broke down in tears. “I just kept crying all the time. I felt so hurt; it was killing my spirit. My whole life had just begun, and now I had to start all over again differently.”
Ketia left the hospital on February 24, 2025, after months of fighting. Before this, she hit the gym daily and dreamed of becoming a model. Now, she’s rebuilding with grit.
Ketia’s Comeback: Prosthetics, Rehab, and Big Dreams
By May 2025, Ketia got prosthetic lower legs and started rehab at a center in Wolverhampton. She’s still waiting on prosthetic fingers, but she’s already walking unaided in parks—way ahead of the usual one-year timeline to relearn walking. “I plan to go back to running in the gym when I can,” she said.
And modeling? She’s not giving up. “At first, I thought I’d quit, but I won’t. You don’t have to hide who you are. This doesn’t make me less of a person. I’m unapologetically me, and I want to help others feel confident about who they are and how they look.” Ketia aims to smash disability barriers and inspire everyone starting university this month.
Doctors aren’t sure how she caught the infection, but her message is clear: Don’t ignore flu-like symptoms in your first weeks at uni. Bacterial meningitis and sepsis can strike fast—get help if you feel off. Ketia’s story shows resilience in the face of unimaginable odds, proving that with determination, you can bounce back stronger.
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