Loose Women star rushed to hospital after collapsing ‘in a lot of pain’ at home

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 Substack 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.’.

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.

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:. Other symptoms in children may include:. And 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’. 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. She was part of the 25th anniversary celebrations. 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.

What I Rent: We pay £2,060 for our Battersea studio flat — and yoga classes are included. I finally got on the property ladder and it was the biggest mistake of my life. We bought a house together — and it's made our breakup even more complicated. Property experts reveal whether it’s actually worth buying a home when you’re young. This is the salary you need to buy a house in every London borough — and it's bleak.

She has also launched a podcast with her husband, Mastering Midlife, in which the pair discuss ‘the highs, the lows and everything in between’. Got a story?. If you’ve got a celebrity story, video or pictures get in touch with the Metro.co.uk entertainment team by emailing us celebtips@metro.co.uk, calling 020 3615 2145 or by visiting our Submit Stuff page – we’d love to hear from you. Arrow MORE: Fare dodger told to pay £12,000 after skipping barriers 736 times.