Mom's Long Covid Turns Out to Be Necrotising Disease of the Pancreas: 'Minutes Away from Death'

Mar. 15, 2025

Sam Lewis' “Long Covid” turned out to be necrotising pancreatitis.Photo:SWNS

SWNS

A U.K. mom of three thought she hadLong Covid— until doctors discovered that she had a necrotising disease that forced her into a coma.

The long health journey for Sam Lewis, 38, began in 2021, when she started having chest pains while getting her children ready for school. She promptly went to the doctor, who told her it was abenign inflammationin the cartilage in her chest — but the pain came back in March 2022, she tells South West News Service, viaThe Daily Mail.

This time, her symptoms were “shrugged off' asLong Covid, she says — but later that month, the Bournemouth, England, mother of three returned to the doctor in incredible pain.

Sam Lewis with her three children at Disneyland Paris.SWNS

The diagnosis was agallstonein her bile duct, she says. But after she was hospitalized to treat it, doctors discovered that she’d developed a debilitating case ofpancreatitisthat “went from acute to necrotising overnight,” Lewis, a children’s performer, says.

Necrotising pancreatitis is a “serious development,” theCleveland Clinicsays, as it occurs when part of the pancreas dies. It occurs in 20% cases of pancreatitis — an inflammation of the gland, which aids in the digestive process.

The illness caused Lewis to swell so much she says, “I looked like I was eight months pregnant. I couldn’t move my ankles.” The disease progressed swiftly, landing her in the intensive care unit, and “at one point I was minutes away from death,” Lewis shares.

Sam Lewis’s Long Covid turned out to be a severe complication of pancreatitis.SWNS

“My family came in. It was heart-wrenching. I couldn’t breathe properly. It was just so scary,” says Lewis, who developed the potentially fatal infectionsepsiswhile in the hospital. It was then that Lewis was placed in a medically induced coma, when doctors removed the dead tissue — which included half of her pancreas.

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“I used to love going out. Now I refrain from going anywhere in case I get a flare up,” she explains. “I can’t even have crisps, chocolate, fish and chips. I can’t have fast food or pop to the bakery.”

But, she says, “It’s something I have to live with,' said Lewis. “Pancreatitis is evil and it can take you.”

source: people.com