I heard my family say goodbye and my last rites being read as I lay terrified and helpless in a coma
Naomi Bailie, 33, from Portaferry, County Down, suffered locked-in syndrome - and then heard the priest read her Last Rites
AFTER being struck down by meningitis, Naomi Bailie, 33, was put into an induced coma to give her battered body a chance to recover.
However, in a terrifying twist she then woke up while still induced - able to hear everything but not alert medics and family that she was conscious.
Then, terrifyingly, she heard a priest read her Last Rites, the prayers given to a Catholic person shortly before their death.
"I was trying to get their attention... but I couldn't," Naomi, from Portaferry, County Down, revealed to Fabulous Digital. "I thought, 'I'm going to die'."
Mum-of-one Naomi had suffered a version of locked-in syndrome, when a person is completely aware and conscious but they cannot communicate verbally as they are virtually completely paralysed.
Now, speaking to raise awareness of meningitis, Naomi tells her horrifying story of quite how close she came to death:
One night in 2016, I’d gone to bed with a sore head. I’d suffered from migraines for years, so I thought it was just another attack coming on.
It was December and nearing the first Christmas my husband Gerard, now 44, and I had with our daughter Niadh, who is now two.
At 8am I woke up feeling worse - my neck hurt too - and I knew it was more than just a migraine.
I called Gerard who had already gone to work and told him that he needed to come home.
That's the last thing I remember.
When Gerard came home 30 minutes later, he found me collapsed on the floor, talking nonsense.
I was rushed to Ulster Hospital by a friend and on the way in the car, I didn’t even remember Gerard or my daughter.
I was completely delirious and even tried to get undressed in the back of the car.
When I got to hospital, the doctors could see I was dangerously ill and they treated me for meningitis straight away, even before I had been diagnosed with it.
They started pumping me full of antibiotics straight away and afterwards doctors told me that is what had saved my life.
I was taken down for immediate brain surgery to release some of the pressure caused by the fluid building up on my brain.
It turned out I'd suffered something called a cerebrospinal fluid leak where fluid was leaking from my spine, which was linked to the meningitis.
It was at this point, following scans, that I was blue-lighted to the Royal Victoria Hospital in Belfast where I was diagnosed with bacterial pneumococcal meningitis.
I was put into an induced coma while my body fought to survive.
For about a week I was unconscious while my body was given a chance to recover.
What is locked-in syndrome?
Locked-in syndrome is when a person is completely aware and conscious but they cannot communicate verbally as they are virtually completely paralysed.
The sufferers are sometimes able to communicate as they can move their eyes in vertically and they can also blink.
Total locked-in syndrome is when the sufferer is not even able to communicate with eye movements as their eyes are paralysed as well.
Locked-in syndrome is caused when there is damage to specific parts of the lower brain and brainstem but no damage to the upper brain.
This can occur in a number of circumstances including:
- When a person has been poisoned, particularly by a krait snake
- When someone suffers from Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis – which is more commonly known as Lou Gehrig’s disease and motor neurone disease
- When someone has suffered from a stroke in their brainstem
- When someone suffers Multiple Sclerosis (MS)
- When someone has a lesion in their brain stem
Then one day I was lying there when my brain woke up - but my body didn't.
And I heard something terrifying...
The Last Rites.
A priest I didn't know was reading them out to me as my family, my husband, mum, dad and two brothers, sat by my bedside saying goodbye.
It scared the life out of me, I assumed I was going to die. I was unable to move but could hear things, like I had locked-in syndrome.
I was lying there, desperately trying to let them know I could hear them... but I physically couldn't.
Later I learned that because my condition was so so serious, and the type of meningitis I had was the most severe kind, doctors had advised my family it might be for the best to prepare for the worst.
I stayed like that for around a week but on Christmas Day I managed to come round enough to see Niadh.
Gerard bought some gifts for me to have. I could barely speak, but it was enough to be with them.
Still, it wasn’t how I had imagined my first Christmas as a family of three to be.
My parents brought in a Christmas dinner for me, from home, all wrapped up.
I came fully out of my coma after 27 days, and after that I carried on getting better each day.
I eventually managed to come out of hospital in February.
Since then, I have suffered with short term memory loss. I have a benign brain tumour and epilepsy that have recently been diagnosed, brought on by the illness.
A priest I didn't know was reading the Last Rites out to me as my family sat by my bedside
Naomi Bailie
I can’t remember day to day things like appointments or meetings with people. I have to write everything down and rely on Gerard and my mum to remind me.
Luckily I can still remember events that happened a while ago like my wedding day and the day Niadh was born.
For the first 12 months I couldn’t look after Niadh unsupervised in case I had a seizure.
To watch other people looking after her, doing what I wanted to do with her, was just heartbreaking.
We had also planned to have another baby too, which we can’t do now because of the problems I’ve been left with, and that breaks my heart too.
I can't go back to work as chairwoman as a local council either.
I would urge people who at risk to get the meningitis vaccine if they can.
New students are at particular risk of catching it as they come into contact with so many new people of a similar age at the start of a new university year.
Meningitis has robbed me of so many things, so if I can help raise awareness and help other people not to go through what I’ve done, then it will be well worth it.
It can feel like a very bad hangover that quickly gets life-threatening, so the key is to act fast and get medical help.
I do feel very lucky to have survived it like I have done.
What is meningitis?
Meningitis can affect anyone, but is most common in babies, young children, teenagers and young adults.
It is the inflammation of the membranes that surround and protect the brain and spinal cord and can be caused by meningococcal bacteria and viral meningitis.
The two forms of the disease have different symptoms.
Around 3,200 people a year get bacterial meningitis, like teh kind Naomi suffered from. One in 10 die and many more are left with life-changing disabilities.
Viral forms of meningitis are less common and rarely life-threatening, but can have lifelong effects.
Infections peak during winter when bugs spread more easily in confined spaces.
he symptoms of meningitis develop suddenly and include:
- A high fever over 37.5 degrees - the average human temperature
- being sick
- a headache
- a blotchy rash that doesn't fade when a glass is rolled over it
- stiffness, especially in the neck
- sensitivity to bright lights
- drowsiness, irritability or lack of energy
- cold hands and feet
- seizures
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