Doctors thought she had the stomach flu. But it was near-fatal sepsis

In Canada, one in 18 deaths involves sepsis, making it the 12th leading cause of death nationally, according to the Canadian Sepsis Foundation.

In 2011, Shannon McKenney, a singer from Burnaby, B.C., suddenly fell violently ill at a dinner party.

Thinking it was food poisoning, she went to the emergency room with severe pain and nausea, only to be sent home with a diagnosis of the stomach flu.

But when her appendix ruptured days later, her condition took a life-threatening turn. Though she survived the ordeal, her health never fully returned to normal.

Doctors initially blamed the lingering symptoms on complications from her appendix. What none of them realized was that McKenney had just survived a hidden and dangerous battle with sepsis.

“I thought, ‘OK, I’m a young, healthy woman. I’m going to recover. It was just a ruptured appendix, no big deal,'” McKenney told Global News.

“But that was the beginning of 13 years of recovery from sepsis.”

Sepsis is a severe condition that occurs when the body’s response to an infection damages its own tissues and organs.

It is also known as septicemia or “blood poisoning,” and is most commonly caused by bacterial infections but can also stem from viruses or fungal infections, according to the World Health Organization and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.