Loose Women star rushed to hospital after collapsing ‘in a lot of pain’ at home
The TV personality was candid about her scary hospital dash.
Loose Women star Andrea McLean was rushed to hospital in an ambulance after her husband found her collapsed in the bathroom.
The 55-year-old TV star detailed her scary hospital experience from five weeks ago as she recounted being diagnosed with ‘severe pneumonia, Acute Kidney Injury and sepsis’, a life-threatening condition.
In a candid new post, she said that she had been suffering from flu-like symptoms for a week including ‘sweating and shivering, with a raging temperature and chills’, ‘pain in my chest and back’ and brown wee before she collapsed in her bathroom.
He husband, Nick Feeney, found her an hour later and rang the GP who advised them ‘to call 999 immediately’.
McLean continued in her Subtack blog that she was ‘in a lot of pain’ and ‘couldn’t stand’ due to low blood pressure.
She recalled that after a ‘challenging’ attempt to get her out on a stretcher she could ‘say with confidence that travelling in the back of an ambulance isn’t as much fun as you think it would be.’
McLean said she was found collapsed and ‘in a lot of pain’ by her husband (Picture: Getty)Then continued: ‘I can’t remember much about A&E other than it was thorough. Questions, scans, lots of needles, and possibly the most painful insertion of a catheter ever experienced.’
She remained in Emergency Assessment Ward hooked to antibiotics for two days and two nights ‘in almost constant pain, with sensory overload with the screams, shouting and sound and smell of poo from people losing control of their bowels.’
The regular Loose Women panelist later detailed the unpleasant experiences she underwent in a new ward she was transferred to with dementia patients constantly approaching or shouting at her.
‘Suddenly another old woman appeared, standing at the end of my bed.
“I want a word with you,” she said, in a voice that could start a bar fight.
‘The nurse took her by the arm, and she was gently helped back to bed, muttering furiously,’ she recalled in one incident.
What is sepsis?Sepsis is a life-threatening reaction to an infection.
It happens when your immune system overreacts to an infection and starts to damage your body's own tissues and organs.
You cannot catch sepsis from another person.
Sepsis is sometimes called septicaemia or blood poisoning.
Symptoms in adults and children:
High/Low temperature Uncontrolled shivering Confusion Passing little urine/diarrhoea Blotchy or cold arms and legsOther symptoms in children may include:
Nausea and vomiting Severe muscle pain Severe breathlessness Loss of consciousness Very lethargic or difficult to wake Breathing very fast Fit or convulsionAnd after explaining the extent of her pain to the nurse she was given ‘morphine’.
The mum-of-two was visited by her family in the hospital including her parents, daughter and husband twice-a-day.
The author recalled at one point her ‘taste buds had gone all strange’ and she ‘hadn’t left the bed in four days’.
Due to the many disturbances throughout the night, including coughs, beeping noises, harsh lights, and shouts, the media personality was also offered sleeping tablets.
McLean outlined her desperation to leave the hospital which was denied while she was getting the ‘infection under control’.
The 55-year-old star was diagnosed with multiple life-threatening health issues (Picture: Ken McKay/ITV/Shutterstock)And recounted the lengthy, and difficult, procedure she went through to take a shower.
‘I don’t know how long it took. A long time. It was challenging keeping the canula in my hand dry, washing my hair and holding onto the wall so I didn’t fall over, all at the same time. But I did it,’ she said.
‘It’s now February, and I’m still not well enough to handle normal stuff like getting up and rushing out the door to do the jobs I’d been booked to do, because every part of that process would end with me falling down, or at the very least sitting on a tube station floor feeling very unwell and embarrassed at the stares,’ she added.
‘I’m still having ‘funny turns’ while out for a walk, or attempting the mildest of exercise.’
McLean returned to Loose Women in September last year after quitting the daytime talk show in 2020.
After co-hosting the show since 2007, she left to pursue her career as a writer and published her self-help memoir,This Girl Is on Fire: How to Live, Learn and Thrive in a Life You Love.
As well as two books in 2022: You Just Need to Believe It: 10 Ways in 10 Days to Unlock Your Courage and Reclaim Your Power.
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