Loose Women star rushed to hospital and diagnosed with severe pneumonia and sepsis after collapsing at home
10 February 2025, 11:06
Loose Women legend Andrea McLean has been rushed to hospital after collapsing at home.
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The star, 55, revealed to fans she was diagnosed with severe pneumonia, acute kidney injury and sepsis after falling unconscious at home.
She opened up about her ordeal in a new blog post where she revealed she lay collapsed on the bathroom floor for an hour before her husband found her.
Sepsis, which can be life-threatening, occurs when the body is battling an infection and requires immediate treatment.
Writing on Substack, McLean said: "We rang the GP who told us to call 999 immediately.
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"The ambulance team were amazing. My blood pressure was so low I couldn’t stand, and I was in a lot of pain. To be honest, I was barely aware of what was happening, other than trying to be helpful.
"Our bedroom is in the loft, up a steep, narrow flight of stairs, which meant the stretcher couldn’t turn, so getting me out was challenging.
"We eventually got out the house, and I can now say with confidence that travelling in the back of an ambulance isn’t as much fun as you think it would be."
She added: "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.
"Then my X-ray and CT scans came back. I had severe pneumonia, Acute Kidney Injury and sepsis. Things happened quickly; drips, super-strong antibiotics via IV and orally, and I was transferred to the Emergency Assessment Ward."
What followed was two days in a hospital ward, where all she experienced was "sensory overload with the screams, shouting and sound and smell of poo from people losing control of their bowels."
Unable to sleep in the ward, doctors allowed her to go home but ensured she visited the hospital every day for treatment.
She continued: "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.
"I’m still having ‘funny turns’ while out for a walk, or attempting the mildest of exercise.
"It means I haven’t really started 2025 yet."
