A pregnant mum went to sleep with a migraine but just hours later, she woke up from a coma and discovered she had two beautiful daughters – but she was now disabled.
Carly O’Loughlin, 33, had a fit in her bathroom, 12 weeks before her due date, where husband Jon found her and immediately called an ambulance.
In the time it took for medics to arrive, Carly began ‘snoring’ which sounded unlike anything Jon had ever heard before. She was also spitting blood.
Doctors realised that Carly, from Somerset, suffered a brain haemorrhage and she had to have a premature caesarian. Her twins were born weighing under 2lbs.
Husband Jon said his new little girls were so small they looked ‘like chicken wings’.
Carly was placed in an induced coma and when she woke up 24 hours, she was told she had given birth.
She said: ‘I just have no memory of giving birth. When I came round Jon was there and told me the girls had been born.
‘I just began sobbing. I had no idea what was happening.
‘I just wanted to go home but doctors needed to find out why I have the brain haemorrhage.’
Three days after the girls were born, Carly was able to see her two newborn daughters in the NICU unit.
But when Carly went back to her hospital bed she noticed a strangle tingle in her right foot.
Medics discovered she had 100 blood clots in her leg and an eight-inch clot just 1cm away from the heart.
Carly underwent emergency surgery and spent the next six weeks in hospital but doctors were unable to find the cause.
The new mum-of-three eventually left the hospital with low mobility in one leg, using a wheelchair or a crutch for the rest of her life.
Now, three years later, she is registered disabled and with Jon as her full-time carer, Carly says she has had her ‘independence stripped away’.
Carly, who was already a mum to her son Riley, said: ‘I just feel like the worst mum in the world.
‘Not only did I not experience giving birth to my twins but I’m not the mum I thought I’d be to them.
‘I’m incredibly jealous that Jon gets to do stuff with the kids and I can’t because of how I am. I hate it.
‘To go from being incredibly independent, social person with a good job to a person who can’t even have a bath or make a sandwich for yourself is really tough.
‘Jon didn’t sign up for this when he married me. I’m just angry all the time and it really gets me upset.
‘Nobody knows what is causing this. I’m still struggling with the term disabled.’
But countless tests and hospital visits later, doctors are still baffled as to what caused the initial bleed on the brain and have left Carly without a formal diagnosis for three years.
She added: ‘I’ve been told I’ll have to have it amputated at some point. My memory has been badly affected by the bleed on the brain. I have these periods where I just zone out.
‘The most important thing for me has always been having a life with my kids. The girls are doing great and are hitting all the milestones. But doctors still don’t know why it happened in the first place or why.
‘It’s frustrating to not only be a mum to my kids but for doctors not to know why this happened. I just want others to get help.’
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