Healthy woman, 24, dies weeks after getting a sore throat

Bethannie Booth, 24, said goodbye to her family and even planned her own funeral before being put into a coma.

A young woman has tragically died just weeks after developing a sore throat.

Bethannie Booth, 24, said goodbye to her family and even planned her own funeral before being put into a coma, The Sun reported.

On March 2, the primary school teacher, from Wales, started to complain of red bumps on her face, “a little bit” of a sore throat and a headache, her sister, Nia-ffion Davies, 27, told the BBC.

She was rushed to the Royal Glamorgan Hospital on March 5 after struggling to breathe and was immediately taken into resuscitation and then the intensive care unit.

Bethannie Booth, 24, died weeks after getting a sore throat. Picture: Facebook

Later, Bethannie discovered her lung had collapsed as a result of a Strep A infection.

The highly infectious bacteria is sweeping across the UK, causing a spike in the number of scarlet fever cases.

The primary school teacher then developed sepsis, a life-threatening reaction to an infection that happens when your immune system overreacts to an infection and starts to damage your body’s tissue and organs.

Before being put into a coma in at attempt to give her organs time to repair, Bethannie sent some funny messages to her family members and let them know she believed she might die.

Megan Booth, 25, Bethannie’s other sister, said: “It kills me that she felt that, she must have been scared, but she was still able to crack a joke.”

Bethannie also began planning her own funeral and asked her parents to make sure it was full of colour - no one was allowed to wear black.

Bethannie was transferred to Guy’s and St Thomas’ Hospital in London, where she spent two-and-a-half weeks on an ECMO machine, which takes over a person’s breathing using an artificial lung.

After showing good progress, Bethannie was transferred back to the Royal Glamorgan Hospital, where she quickly redeveloped sepsis and died on March 31 surrounded by her family.

Ms Booth planned her own funeral before she died. Picture: Facebook

Recalling her last moments, Bethannie’s dad Wayne Booth said: “All four of us went in to see her. We were holding her hand and she took her last breath.”

The family now want to raise awareness of the signs of sepsis, which can be difficult to spot.

Symptoms include difficulty breathing, blotchy skin and a rash that does not fade when a glass is rolled over it.

Mr Booth said: “If we can save one poor family going through what we’ve gone through, we’ve accomplished something.

“A sore throat is not always a sore throat.”

Ms Davies added: “If you feel like things are wrong, if you suspect that anything’s wrong, don’t let anyone tell you that there’s nothing wrong.”

This story was originally published by The Sun and was reproduced with permission