A mum has told how her baby nearly killed her when childbirth filled her legs with life threatening blood clots.
Chantelle Matthews, 29, collapsed at home due to a post partum haemorrhage just 17 after giving birth to her son Rory.
Her family were told to ‘prepare for the worst’ as doctors worked tirelessly to save the young mother whose legs had filled with life-threatening blood clots.
The mum-of-two lost all feeling in both of her legs – which swelled up to triple their normal size.
Chantelle was left fighting for her life for another ten days in hospital and needed THREE operations to cut out the clots.
The post partum bleed is likely to have been caused following a traumatically quick labour with Rory, leaving doctors to warn Chantelle not to have any more children.
Chantelle from Saltash, Cornwall, said: “It was so hard going through all of this alone. I’m suffering so badly trying to get over what happened but it’s all I think about.
“It didn’t hit me how poorly I was until I woke up in intensive care with the tube down my throat and then I couldn’t breathe as they took it out.
“I couldn’t have any visitors but my partner dropped off some things for me including Rory’s baby grow that we had brought him home in.
“I kept that baby grow on my neck constantly the whole time I was in the hospital just to have his smell.
“How I’m feeling now is hard as I’m so happy to be home and recovering but all I think about is what could have happened and I want to go and hug my family but I can’t because of lockdown.”
Support worker Chantelle gave birth to her son Rory on April 19 at Derriford Hospital in Plymouth.
She had returned to her home the same day but developed a pain in her right side under her ribs a week after giving birth.
After almost two weeks of the pain getting worse, Chantelle called her doctor on May 6 who advised it could be an infection.
But minutes later the young mum collapsed on the bathroom floor in front of her six-year-old daughter Esme.
Chantelle said: “My vision went completely, I was cold and sweating and I was in agonising pain in my back.
“Esme got me a pillow and a blanket and comforted me as I laid on the floor whilst my partner Lee called an ambulance.”
Chantelle’s blood pressure was dangerously low and the young mum was slipping in and out of consciousness as the ambulance rushed her to Derriford Hospital A&E.
Due to social distancing rules, Chantelle was alone in the ambulance and her family were told to ‘prepare for the worst’.
Chantelle said: “I was so scared having to go alone and leave my two week old baby who I was breast feeding at home.
“Once I got to A&E, everything was a blur – there were 15 to 20 people rushing around and I got sent for an MRI straight away.
“When my mum and my partner got to the hospital, they were taken into a family room where a doctor told them what was going on and said they needed to prepare themselves for the worst.
“Both of them won’t talk to me about what was said in the room but my mum just says she never thought she would hear those words come from a doctor’s mouth about her daughter.
“I was terrified, I had no clue what was going on and then my mum and Lee came into the room and told me I was going for surgery.
“At this point, I was white as a ghost, shivering cold, I’d lost all feeling in both of my legs and they had swelled up to triple their normal size.
“My mum and Lee told me not to worry and to be strong but then they cuddled me so tightly, I just knew that things were bad.”
Doctors diagnosed a post partum haemorrhage, resulting in a bleed in her abdomen and blood clots filling her legs.
She was rushed into surgery twice over the next 24 hours where doctors removed most of the blood clots in her legs and inserted an inferior vena cava filter into her chest to catch any further developing clots.
Chantelle next woke up in the intensive care unit attached to a ventilator in the evening of May 7 – her eldest daughter Esme’s seventh birthday.
She said: “I looked at the clock and it said it was May 7 and 6 o’clock and my heart broke realising it was Esme’s birthday.
“I quickly asked the nurse if it was 6am or 6pm and she replied it was 6pm, at which point my heart broke into pieces and I sobbed.
“I had been on the ventilator for all of my daughter’s birthday with my family not knowing if I was going to make it or not – I’d ruined her special day.
“The nurse passed me the telephone – it was my mum who broke down sobbing, saying she thought she had lost me. It was a very emotional phone call.
“At this point I didn’t know just how poorly I had been.
“I started crying. My dad came on the phone and he was sobbing telling me he was so worried and how much he loves me.
“I phoned Lee and we both just cried.
“He told me he loved me, how scared he was and that he tried to be strong for Esme’s birthday but he broke down crying when she was opening presents as I should have been with them.”
Chantelle spent the next three days in intensive care unable to move, enduring yet another operation to remove blood clots on May 8.
After a negative test for covid-19, she finally returned home to her family on May 16.
She said: “I wasn’t allowed any visitors at all. It broke my heart being in there away from my newborn baby.
“The nurses all helped me get through the toughest time of my life.
“They helped me to express my breast milk, brushed my hair, washed me and sat with me while I sobbed because I was away from my newborn.
“I’m now currently suffering very bad with anxiety and depression due to what happened to me but I’m just pleased to be alive and finally home with my family.
“I am sharing my story now to raise awareness of blood clots after birth and also to thank the nurses that helped me.
“It’s been an eventful six weeks in lockdown with Rory and it’s so hard not being able to have family around to help whilst I’m recovering.
“I honestly couldn’t be any prouder of my partner and my daughter for coping the way they have, especially Esme who has been so helpful even though I missed her birthday.”