A GRATEFUL daughter has thanked the medical team who “gave her back her world” after her cancer-suffering mum fought back from the brink of death to beat Covid-19.

When Louise Creagh, 52, was wheeled into the intensive care unit at Colchester Hospital, she told her daughter she feared “just becoming another statistic.”

Louise, from Colchester, is already classed as vulnerable, as she is living with a rare form of blood cancer, ulcerative colitis and an overactive thyroid.

So when she began to experience symptoms of Covid-19 in April, her daughter Jordan Smith, 26, feared the worst.

Jordan, who works as a community nurse and lives in Greenstead, Colchester, said: “She came out of hospital after a five-day admission complaining of achy muscles, feeling tired and she started to get a cough.

“She lives with my disabled brother and is his main carer.

“He phoned me at night and said she is very poorly.

“Luckily I had all my stuff in the back of my car, so I sped over to her house with all my protective equipment as I had an inkling it was likely Covid.”

Jordan found her mother was struggling to breathe and had developed a high fever.

Ambulance crews took Louise to Colchester Hospital, where she was admitted to Mersea Ward.

As her condition worsened, she was taken to the intensive care unit on April 28, heavily sedated and placed on a ventilator.

The hardest part for Jordan was enduring an agonising wait for the next phone call, unable to see her mother or comfort her.

Louise was intubated, fitted with a feeding tube and regularly proned – a method of lessening the strain on the lungs by lying the patient down on their front.

Gazette:

Struggle - Louise in intensive care

At her worst, Louise began to show signs of heading towards a cardiac arrest.

Jordan said: “She needed two rounds of chest compressions to bring her back.

“If you had spoken to me four weeks ago I would have told you she wasn’t going to come through this.

“I had already planned my mum’s funeral, and it wasn’t just her I had to think about – I had to think about my brother too.

“He is 33 and has got high-functioning autism, having mum taken out of the equation was a big step for him.

“But when she first went into hospital he took it incredibly well.

“It was absolutely heartbreaking, my mum and I do everything together - we are like best friends.

“But from then on it seemed to be a turning point, from that day she has been getting stronger.

“They weaned her off full sedation and she had the tracheostomy removed.

“She was in a medically induced coma for probably around three weeks.”

Louise’s remarkable recovery, which defied the odds, was capped off by her emotional exit from the intensive care unit on Wednesday.

Nurses and doctors and practitioners surrounded her bed, clapping and cheering as they wheeled her out.

“They have given me the world,” said Jordan of the medical teams who saved her mother’s life.

“They have given me everything, I will never forget and will never be able to thank them enough.

“She came off ventilation completely on my 26th birthday, May 24.

“She is a mother-of-four, and my brother Lee and his partner Sophie had a daughter, Scarlett, while she was in intensive care.

“She might have never met her granddaughter.”

Gazette:

Happier times - Louise with her daughter and best friend Jordan Smith

Jordan turned to the Gazette to try and give other families of Covid-19 patients some hope to cling to during a nightmarish time.

She was inspired by the story of 31-year-old Omar Taylor, who made a miraculous recovery after fighting the virus for six weeks at Colchester Hospital.

She also wants to keep people on their guard as lockdown restrictions are eased.

Jordan said: “When they first took her up to the ITU she said to me: ‘I don’t want to be another statistic’.

“All I could say was: ‘Don’t worry, you won’t be.’

“When she got out I said ‘Mum you are not a statistic, you’ve battled, fought and beaten this.’

“I want to give that back to people.

“Whoever has loved ones fighting, my mum can do it and so can they.

“Although restrictions might be lessened, remember the virus is still around, this is what it can do, and there are so many vulnerable people still out there at risk of catching it.”

Louise now faces a long road to full recovery, with her memory badly impacted by the illness and long-term sedation.

But she is as tough as nails.

“She is such a strong woman,” said Jordan.

“She is such an independent woman, everything she comes up against she fights it with everything she possibly can.

“Every time she’s put down she gets back up, even the other day I spoke to her on Facetime and she still just has this smile on her face – as she always does.

“I asked her why and she just said ‘I am so thankful to be alive.’"