AN art student is preparing to show her final collection just six weeks after life-saving surgery.
Amy Crawford underwent an emergency operation to remove an abscess after being diagnosed with potentially fatal sepsis.
The 22-year-old had been unwell for several days before she attended an out-of-hours doctor service in Dundee at the beginning of April. By the time she arrived, her temperature had almost hit 40C and her pulse was racing at 146 beats per minute.
Crawford, from Carnoustie in Angus, said she was in so much pain she “couldn’t think” as she was taken to hospital, but feared she would miss her degree show as she waited for surgery.
Now she is preparing to display her final-year Fine Art work at the annual University of Dundee Art, Design and Architecture Degree Show. Almost 350 students will exhibit their work at the event, which opens on Friday.
Crawford said: “Even the ambulance staff were panicking when my pulse rate increased to 146 beats per minute so I knew how serious it was.
“It was as I was lying waiting for my operation that I had a brief moment when I started thinking that I wouldn’t get to my degree show and I would have wasted all that time and effort.
“This is what everything builds towards for art students and even after the operation I was worrying about what needed to be done.”
Inspired by her work running art sessions for adults with dementia, Crawford’s exhibit uses pressed flowers to depict the impact of the disease on the brain and was completed during her recovery.
She said: “April was pretty much a write-off. I was bed-bound for weeks so when I eventually was able to get up my muscles had wasted.
I was so weak but I knew I had to get into university to finish my work. I started off coming in a couple of days a week and built up from there.
“I was determined that sepsis wasn’t going to ruin it for me. If I had one piece of advice for art students it is to be as organised as possible because you never know what’s round the corner.”
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