A vaccinated Ayrshire mum has warned people not to be complacent with Covid after a life-threatening blood clot left her hours away from death.
Gail Merry was rushed to Ayr Hospital last month after coronavirus struck her down just days after receiving her first AstraZeneca jab.
The 46-year-old from Mossblown began to display symptoms of a sore throat, fever and loss of taste and smell after a positive test on Saturday, May 29 having had her shot on Monday, May 24.
But within two weeks, Gail found herself being transferred to Kilmarnock's Crosshouse Hospital's intensive care unit where medics battled a potentially deadly clot between her heart and lung.
Gail admits she believed the virus would be “just like flu” and considers herself active and healthy with no underlying conditions.
Now after her terrifying ordeal in hospital, Gail has urged people to stick with the guidelines and take the vaccine as Covid does not discriminate.
Gail told Ayrshire Live: “This can seriously take a bad turn for anyone no matter who you are.
“You don’t realise how serious this can be until you are in resus being constantly monitored as you struggle to breathe.
“I was told I was very lucky not to have died on that Friday morning. It is a really crazy thing to get my head around.
“A lot of what you hear on the news...it is people dying because of underlying health conditions.
“These are the stories that you continue to hear. You think you will be fine but that won’t always be the case. This virus does not discriminate.
“Just because you have been vaccinated it doesn’t mean that you can’t become ill. I was very unlucky that the vaccine never had enough time to work.
Gail fell sick along with her husband Richard, 54, and their three children – Matthew 19, Caitlin 17, and Robyn 15.
Within a matter of days, the mortgage advisor had to make her first trip to hospital as she struggled with her breathing.
Medics gave her steroids, an x-ray and she was sent home but just nine days later her symptoms took a turn for the worse.
Incredibly, Gail’s Apple Watch revealed her oxygen levels had plummeted to dangerous levels.
Gail said: “I woke with a strange unpleasant fluttering sensation in my heart.
“My breathing became steadily more difficult every minute. My Apple Watch showed blood O2 level of 72 per cent where it should be 95-100 per cent.
“Within minutes I could barely get a breath in at all, I had went completely grey and my hands were like ice.”
Gail lost consciousness for a short time in the ambulance as they raced to Ayr Hospital.
In resus, concerned doctors sent her straight for a CT scan which showed a massive saddle pulmonary embolism – a large clot blocking the main artery between her heart and lungs.
Gail was transferred to intensive care where she was placed on a special machine called a CPAP which blasts oxygen through a patient's nose.
During her five-day stay in hospital, Gail had to communicate with her family via FaceTime.
And she has revealed the harrowing truth of Covid in our wards, as she witnessed one patient pass away during her stay.
She added: “At the time, a lot of what happened was a blur. When I was transferred to Crosshouse, I had two nurses and my consultant in the ambulance with me.
“It was a really terrifying experience that I wouldn’t want to see anyone ever go through.
“Because of the position and the size of the clot you only have a couple of hours to catch it before you are in serious trouble.”
Gail is pleading with people not to allow heroic NHS staff to become overwhelmed after watching first-hand everything that they do.
She said: “Everybody was just amazing; the paramedics, the nurses and the doctors who were at Ayr Hospital
“I can’t even put it into words how much I owe these people – how much we all do.
“I feel I was actually lucky to be in the hospital so far in the pandemic as I fear how it could have been at the start when doctors knew less about treating it.”
After being told that the vaccine takes weeks to take effect, Gail is hoping that people stick to the rules and get vaccinated.
She added: “If my story can stop one person from becoming ill like me then that is all that matters.”
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