‘It was pure black’: Student nearly died after leaving a tampon in for nine days

A student who left a tampon inside her for nine days found it was ‘pure black’ when she removed it – and she ended up in intensive care.

Emily Pankhurst, 20, a third year criminology student at the University of Canterbury in Kent, was in intensive care for three days and was left walking on a Zimmer frame after suffering toxic shock.

Emily, of Maidstone, Kent, said: ‘When I finally realised the tampon was in me and I pulled it out it was pure black. It was obviously coated in bacteria.

‘I wouldn’t have known what it was apart from the string. It was horrible. I immediately chucked it in the loo, I felt sick.

‘But just half an hour later my speech slurred and my skin became mottled. I started to feel faint and I was rushed to hospital by ambulance.

emily being visited by a friend

‘During the journey they said I was displaying all the symptoms of sepsis and so the blue lights were put on. I became an emergency case.’

At Maidstone Hospital she was transferred to intensive care. For three days 12 different types of antibiotics were intravenously fed into her.

‘I’ve never been in pain like it so was given morphine. Doctors said if I had left it any longer I would be dead.

The NHS said: ‘The role of tampons in toxic shock syndrome remains unexplained.

‘One theory is that if a tampon is left in your vagina for some time, as is often the case with the more absorbent types of tampons, it can become a breeding ground for the bacteria.