A schoolgirl saved her mother’s life after spotting something was wrong and following her up to bed – where she had collapsed and could have died.
Laura Cole, 35, fears she could have died if her watchful daughter Sophie hadn’t been there to save her.
Quick-thinking 11-year-old Sophie realised her mum wasn’t right when she kept falling asleep while talking to her.
It later emerged that Laura, who suffers from health problems including asthma, hip and knee dysplasia and osteoarthritis, had dangerously low oxygen levels.
Mum-of-two Laura had decided to go upstairs to her bedroom but, alert to the problem, Sophie followed her.
She found Laura blanked out on the floor of the bathroom in their home in Swindon, Wilts., and alerted the rest of her family.
An ambulance was called and she was rushed to intensive care – where she was told her organs would have failed if she had gone to sleep.
Laura said: “It was really clear that Sophie had saved my life. I owe her my life.
“She kept waking me back up and doctors said if she had just let me go to sleep, I would not have woken.”
Laura was later informed that it was the mix of two of her medications that sent her into respiratory distress, resulting in an extremely low oxygen level.
She said: “Doctors think that’s what was causing me to be so sleepy. So, if I had gone to sleep, with my oxygen level that low, my organs would have failed.
“I was talking to the kids and my husband, and as I was talking to them, I just kept nodding off and I stopped speaking for a few minutes.
“I just thought that I was so tired that I just needed to go to sleep.
“Sophie knew something was wrong and wouldn’t let me sleep, and she tapped me on the arm, shook me. I told her: ‘I’m just tired, just leave me alone’.”
But, recognising her a change in her mum, Sophie decided to check on her after she had gone upstairs – saving her life.
Sophie said: “Mum is usually bubbly and even when she’s ill, she normally has a sense of humour, but she was just completely blanked out. She didn’t remember anything.
“There’s been a couple of times where she’s been ill, so I decided to follow her to the bathroom.
“I was really worried after she collapsed because I didn’t know what was going to happen, but I kind of knew that she needed an ambulance, because you could just tell.
“She was on the floor and looked so ill.”
Husband Simon, 39, called an ambulance and she was rushed to intensive care.
Laura added: “They sedated me and put me on a mechanical ventilator due to being in respiratory distress.
“I was given a lumbar puncture, had a central line placed in my throat and had a feeding tube up my nose to my stomach.
“It was scary, the next thing I knew, I was waking up in hospital. I didn’t know where I was, it was all black and I had all these tubes in me.”
Laura stayed in intensive care for four days before continuing her recovery at home.
She added: “I came home because my husband is working from home now, so I have him and the children to look after me.
“I feel weak and a bit fragile. It’s been an awful lot to take in to be honest.
“The children almost lost me, they lost their grandpa, my dad, from coronavirus back in May, so they’ve been through an awful lot.
“So being so sick and having this happen has been difficult to take in and to process.
“Sophie is really nervous, she’s always asking me how I am feeling. She’s an amazing young woman.
“She’s so mature for her age, she has a lot to deal with, and with her brother Alex, they do so much around the house, they do so much to help me.”