Nurses said ‘welcome back’ – I was thinking ‘from where?’
Dad reveals battle with rare life-threatening condition
ADAD is raising awareness of a life-threatening condition he was diagnosed with after losing consciousness whilst driving his daughter home from school.
Johannes Mashavave, 55, from Middleton, began losing consciousness at the wheel whilst driving his six-year-old daughter, Grace, home in 2022.
The dad of two said: “I was due to pick Grace up from primary school at 3pm and had gone for what I thought would be a quick nap around 1pm, as
I felt quite tired. I slept through my alarms until 5pm and had more than 20 missed calls from my wife, Odion, and the school.
“On getting out of bed I still felt drowsy. When I arrived at the school, Grace noticed something was off, she said that I was limping, looked confused and that I wasn’t talking properly. “Obviously, at the time I thought there was nothing wrong with me, so we got into the car and headed home.
“Around 500 metres from my house was when I took a turn.
“A passer-by noticed the car revving unusually, came over and saw that I was unresponsive. They immediately rang for the emergency services.”
Following the terrifying incident, Johannes was taken to Salford Royal Infirmary, where he was placed in an induced coma in critical care.
Four days later, he was transferred to The Royal Liverpool University Hospital as blood tests showed he needed specialist care.
There Johannes, who works as part of the security team at The Trafford Centre, was diagnosed with Thrombocytopenic Purpura (TTP), a rare blood condition, only six in every million people per year.
TTP causes blood clots to form in small blood vessels throughout the body, stopping blood flow to vital organs and triggering a medical emergency.
Patients with TTP experience symptoms including fever, fatigue, headaches, confusion, rashes, bruises and stroke-like symptoms.
The condition is fatal without treatment.
Johannes said: “I remember waking up to machines all around me and to two nurses saying, ‘welcome back Jo’, but I was thinking, welcome back from where?
“The care the team in Liverpool provides is exceptional.
“Along with support from my wife, they have given me the confidence to return to university in Preston, to complete my degree in Social Work, which I was studying before my diagnosis.
“Thanks to them I’m back to how I was and I’m confident this will continue with their support.”
The Royal Liverpool University Hospital is the TTP Specialist Centre for North West England and is the second largest centre in the country, treating around 100 patients at any one time, with about 15 new referrals each year.
In a bid to raise awareness of the condition, which even few healthcare professionals have heard of, the hospital has commissioned a film to share stories of TTP patients across the North West including Johannes’s.
Dr Tina Dutt, consultant haematologist and TTP Specialist Centre Lead at the Royal Liverpool University Hospital, said: “I cannot thank our patients enough for their honesty and bravery in sharing their stories in this film.
“We want this film to be a resource to empower others who may be diagnosed with TTP in the future, and to provide comfort and reassurance to patients who may be experiencing feelings of isolation and fear.
“The TTP team here are committed to providing the highest standards of care irrespective of the rarity of TTP and we will continue to work closely with our patients to improve both their physical and mental wellbeing.
“We want our patients to return to enjoying their lives despite having this diagnosis”.
●●THE film will be available to view next month on the TTP Patient Network website via www.ttpnetwork. org.uk/.