A mum of five who was left in a coma and given only a 20% chance of staying alive has survived against all the odds.
Caroline Salem, 62, from Newport, Co Tipperary, is in a wheelchair having lost the use of her legs after complications arose during a routine operation to blast a kidney stone at St John’s Hospital in Limerick.
In what became “a matter of life and death”, she developed complications and was transferred to intensive care at University Hospital Limerick, where she was in a coma for three months.
Caroline said: “During the procedure, I contracted sepsis. This quickly resulted in me ending up in intensive care.
“This then escalated rapidly into a septic shock resulting in multi-organ failure.
“I was on life-support ventilation, dialysis, a high dosage of adrenaline to keep my heart pumping.
“But my liver started failing and I had to have most of my small bowel removed as it died due to not receiving blood flow.”
At one point, Caroline said medics were considering turning her life-support machine off, but her children all insisted that must not happen.
She added: “They thought about turning the machines off on me because they didn’t know if my brain was still going.
“But my kids said, ‘No way, that’s our mother in the bed’.”
Incredibly, she got through the ordeal, but her legs had to be amputated above the knees and she is confined to a wheelchair.
Now, her family and friends are rallying around her and trying to raise the money needed to adapt her home.
Caroline said: “It’s been a hard time. I went in for a routine stone blast and to wake up three months later without my legs, it’s very difficult.
“Having to depend on my kids to look after me is the hardest part. Not being
able to do anything, stuck in the chair.
“I cannot even get out of bed. Someone has to be here with me constantly. I have gone from being very active to nothing when you think about it.”
“You are going from a parent back to being a child, where you have your kids looking after you. For me, that is not right.”
Caroline was full of praise for staff at both St John’s Hospital and University Hospital Limerick.
She said: “There’s a great crowd of nurses and staff out there. I couldn’t thank them enough for what they’ve done for me.”
- Caroline’s GoFundMe page is at ie.gofundme.com/f/home-adaptation-fundraiser.
