Photo: Moment RF
A 19-year-old college student in the UK underwent multiple amputations after mistaking deadly meningitis for the flu, PEOPLE reports.
Ketia Moponda, 19, said she began feeling sick shortly after arriving at De Montfort University in Leicester in September 2024. Moponda initially brushed off her symptoms, like coughing and fatigue, as a typical cold and delayed going to the doctor.
“I just thought I had freshers’ flu,” Moponda recalled.
After telling a friend that she felt like she was “going to die,” Moponda stopped responding to calls and messages. The friend contacted the university, where officials found her unconscious in her dorm room.
Moponda was taken to the Leicester Royal Infirmary ICU and diagnosed with meningococcal septicaemia, a severe bacterial infection that caused bacterial meningitis and triggered sepsis, a life-threatening response to infection that can shut down organs and limit blood circulation.
“My blood oxygen level was at 1%, my feet were green and swollen, and my organs were failing,” Moponda said. “Doctors told my family that if I woke at all, I’d likely be brain dead.”
Moponda was placed in a medically induced coma and woke two days later, unable to speak or see.
“It was a whole week before I started speaking,” she recalled.
Moponda had to undergo finger amputation in December before both her legs were removed below the knee in January 2025. She also battled a flesh-eating infection that required a skin graft from her thighs.
“Basically, my legs had died because of a lack of blood going to them,” Moponda said. “It was terrible. I just kept crying all the time. I felt so hurt—it was killing my spirit.”
Moponda received prosthetic legs earlier this year and is learning to walk again. She hopes to raise awareness about meningitis and early detection, especially among students.
“This doesn’t make me less of a person,” Moponda said. “I am unapologetically me, and I want to help others feel confident about who they are and how they look.”
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