My legs wouldn’t work. It was weeks before I could leave the house
Mum-of-three Hannah Mumford, 44, is lucky to be alive after suffering malaria in Africa.
Hannah, who returned to her Aberdeen home last month, is still suffering the aftermath of her ordeal of two years ago. Hannah, who is married to Andrew, 44, a pilot with humanitarian airline Mission Aviation Fellowship, had been living in Liberia since August 2018 when she was hit with the disease.
She was so badly affected she was left unable to walk for a time. One doctor suspected the malaria had affected her brain, causing neurological damage.
Reliving her nightmare of 2019 Hannah – mum to Zack, 13, Esther, 10, and Jacob, six - told The Sunday Post: “We have always taken prophylaxis to help prevent malaria. Many people don’t.
“At the end of April 2019 I was starting to feel tired but just put it down to being a busy mum. In May, I went shopping with our driver Moses. He asked what was wrong with me, if I had malaria but I said I was just a bit under the weather.”
Once inside the supermarket, she began to feel ill, her legs were weak, and she had to be helped back to the car and home. Moses advised her to go to the mission hospital at the compound where the family lived.
She remembered: “I went but I could hardly walk to the treatment room. The hospital sent me for blood tests and they showed I had malaria, but a low reading. I was really surprised. They put me on oral treatment but by the end of that week I was found passed out on the floor. I was really confused. I was taken back to hospital.”
She was given intravenous malaria treatment for five days as an outpatient. “My legs wouldn’t work. It was weeks before I could walk around the house. I stopped eating and I was sleeping all the time,” said Hannah.
“I didn’t have the usual symptoms like a high temperature or aches. Andrew had to stay home because I had to have somebody with me all the time. By this time the malaria was out of my body but I wasn’t picking up as quickly as doctors wanted me to.
“My brain sometimes doesn’t tell my legs to move and they shake a little bit. They can be quite painful. We have been back from Liberia for six weeks now and it is getting better. But I do have to be really careful with what I do.
“I have spoken to a western doctor who thinks the malaria might have travelled up to my brain and that is where the damage is.
“I know that I am very lucky. If my driver hadn’t pushed me to go to hospital that day, we could be in a very different position.”