‘IT WASN’T UNTIL LATER I REALISED HOW NEAR TO DEATH I’D COME’
Mum tells TV show of battle to save her life
A SINGLE mum is looking forward to ‘living for today’ and spending quality time with her son after medics saved her life.
Joanna Watts dialled 999 after suffering extreme pain as she lay in bed at home.
The 41-year-old was then admitted to the Royal Stoke University Hospital’s major trauma centre with a brain aneurysm or bleed on the brain.
Her case will be featured in the second episode of the hard-hitting Channel 5 documentary 999 Critical Condition tonight at 9pm.
Joanna said: “I have found the whole experience very surreal. It wasn’t until I left the hospital that it actually hit me what had happened but I was relieved I was taken to the right place.
“It wasn’t until I did some research afterwards that I realised just how close to death I came and I have struggled a lot with that, especially as I am a single mum.
“I am quite an upbeat person but I have been very anxious but now I
CARE: Joanna Watts in a scene from 999 Critical Condition. want to live for today and tomorrow and not for yesterday and spend quality time with my son who is now seven.”
Joanna had initially been assessed at Crewe’s Leighton Hospital before she was transferred to the specialist stroke services.
She was in hospital for two weeks and spent a week on critical care before being transferred to a ward to continue her recovery.
“I am eternally grateful to everyone involved in my care,” she added.
“They saved my life at the end of the day. I am also grateful to the nurses in critical care who looked after me and washed my hair after my operation. It’s small things like this that helped me to start to feel more normal again.”
Tonight’s episode also includes a 17-year-old girl critically injured in a car crash in North Wales.
Her parents race to her side while trauma team leader Dr Richard Hall works to identify her injuries and get her to emergency surgery. And in resus, a patient’s heart stops multiple times while Dr Hari Mandava battles to save his life.
999 Critical Condition screens on Channel 5 at 9pm on Thursday nights.