Former Loose Woman Andrea McLean has opened up about how she was 24 hours from death after battling pneumonia and sepsis. The 55-year-old feels she has a second chance at life and that if she hadn’t made it to hospital, she would not have made it.
And the mum-of-two believes her ordeal last Christmas has made her “re-evaluate my entire life”. She said: “I didn’t realise how severe my illness was at the time. But the doctors had told my husband, Nick, that had I not got to hospital when I did, had we waited another 24 hours to call for help, I may not be here now.”
The drama began on the day after Boxing Day and came after a bad bout of flu that had “just not gone away.” She says: “I got up to go to the bathroom and just fell to the floor. By the time the paramedics arrived they said my blood pressure was so low they had to stabilise me before moving me.
"Our bedroom is in the loft and they couldn’t get the stretcher around the tight bend, but eventually I managed to slide down the stairs, and was rushed to hospital. What happened over the next few weeks changed my life forever.” Andrea said that she had been feeling unwell in the 18 months leading up to last Christmas
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She says: “I’ve had Covid three times and suffered long covid which left me perpetually exhausted and with an underlying weakness so I seemed to pick every little bug up. I haven’t felt quite right for a very long time, so when my husband and daughter contracted that nasty flu going around in December, I of course caught it too.
"But it lingered with me. I just couldn’t shift it, and it all came to a head the morning I fell to the floor. My blood pressure was 60/40 – it is still very low now – and I think my body just gave up.” She says she was in and out of hospital throughout January but it was a “blur”.
Andrea adds: “It was only a few weeks after I got home that I realised the magnitude of what had happened – that if I hadn’t gone into hospital that day, I may not be here now.”Earlier this month, she paid A&E another visit after collapsing from getting out of bed 'too fast'. And Andrea says: “I am still not back to full strength, and my blood pressure is still very low. I recently had another fall – again the result of getting up too quickly. Unfortunately, this time I fell flat on my face and ended up sporting a bruiser of a black eye.”
She says the biggest learning from the experience has been reassessing her outlook on life She adds: “There are rarely second chances in this life, so as I began to regain my strength I knew I had to seize the day and focus on what I really want to do.
:I very nearly died.” Andrea said she needed to listen to her body more .”That scary, horrible moment was a turning point, it has led to now and I am feeling really positive about where I am going.”
