Sophie
On 8th of March I went into spontaneous labour with my son at 37 weeks. I had an elective Caesarian section and had to return to theatre on the evening of the 9th of March due to internal bleeding. During that surgery my Ureter (that connects your kidney to your bladder) was cut, I had a perforated bladder, and my womb was bleeding excessively.
Due to this I ended up needing a nephrostomy tube on my left kidney as it wasn’t coping. I got progressively sicker and they put a nephrostomy tube in my right kidney to see if that would help. It didn’t and on the 20th of March I was moved to HDU. I got sicker and sicker with constant temperatures, the highest reaching 42.9°c (109.2°f).
Eventually on the Sunday they decided to treat me for HLH and got in contact with UCLH in London for assistance. On the 23rd I was struggling to breathe so was intubated for 5 days. Because of this I have been left with lung and swallowing issues. HLH was never a diagnosis in their minds as I had no reason to have it. They believe I am the first woman in Northern Ireland to have HLH due to being postpartum. Fortunately, I am now home living with my lovely husband, daughter and now 4 month old son.
