A LOOSE Women legend has revealed her terrifying health battle after collapsing at her home.
She has detailed her ambulance dash while “in a lot of pain” as well as her treatment on the ward after being diagnosed with severe pneumonia, acute kidney injury and sepsis.
A Loose Women presenter has detailed her terrifying medical battle after collapsing in the bathroom[/caption]
Her husband Nick Feeney brought in meals to the hospital ward[/caption]
Andrea McLean, 55 – who has fronted the ITV daytime series numerous times – has opened up on her rough start to 2025 in her new substack upload.
The Loose Women alum told readers how she “collapsed in the bathroom” and “lay there for an hour before my husband [Nick Feeney] found me.”
Andrea wrote of the ordeal and posted: “We rang the GP who told us to call 999 immediately.
“The ambulance team were amazing. My blood pressure was so low I couldn’t stand, and I was in a lot of pain. To be honest, I was barely aware of what was happening, other than trying to be helpful.
“Our bedroom is in the loft, up a steep, narrow flight of stairs, which meant the stretcher couldn’t turn, so getting me out was challenging.
“We eventually got out the house, and I can now say with confidence that travelling in the back of an ambulance isn’t as much fun as you think it would be.”
Andrea added: “I can’t remember much about A&E other than it was thorough. Questions, scans, lots of needles, and possibly the most painful insertion of a catheter ever experienced.
“Then my X-ray and CT scans came back. I had severe pneumonia, Acute Kidney Injury and sepsis. Things happened quickly; drips, super-strong antibiotics via IV and orally, and I was transferred to the Emergency Assessment Ward.”
Andrea then detailed her two days and two night the ward, which saw her in a “sensory overload with the screams, shouting and sound and smell of poo from people losing control of their bowels.”
She also told how dementia patients in the ward also approached her bed in a restless night with little sleep.
After medics informed her she had lost 80 per cent capacity in one of her lungs, she was put on morphine.
Her businessman tycoon husband Nick, who had found her in the bedroom when her health battle first struck, visited twice a day to bring meals along with her daughter and parents.
After struggling to get any rest on the ward, the doctors came up with a compromise which saw her head home to sleep – but visit the hospital for her drips.
Regular Loose Women panellists
Katie Piper – Former Strictly Come Dancing star, activist, model and author
Sunetra Sarker – Also a former Strictly Come Dancing star, and known for acting in Casualty
Kaye Adams – Scottish journalist and one of the original Loose Women
Christine Lampard – ITV presenter
Ruth Langsford – Presented Loose Women on and off since 1999
Jane Moore – Former columnist for The Sun
Coleen Nolan – Became known for her family girl band called The Nolans and went on to compete on Celeb Big Brother
Nadia Sawalha – Former EastEnders star and Celebrity MasterChef winner
Stacey Solomon – Known for her reality show Sort Your Life Out and winning series 10 of I’m a Celeb
Janet Street-Porter – A journalist and president of the Ramblers’ Association
Brenda Edwards – Came fourth on the X Factor and went on to become a pop star and act in hit musicals such as Hairspray
Charlene White – Lead presenter at ITV News London
Kelly Bryan – Former EastEnders star and was in a girl group called Eternal alongside her sisters. Currently part of the cast of Hollyoaks
Frankie Bridge – Participated in Strictly Come Dancing and came third place on I’m A Celeb in 2021
Judi Love – A stand up comedian and radio presenter, who has also made a variety of TV appearances in shows such as Strictly Come Dancing, Celebrity MasterChef, and Taskmaster
Linda Robson – Played iconic character Tracey Stubbs in Birds of a Feather
Denise Welch – A soap queen, she starred in Coronation Street, Waterloo Road and Hollyoaks. Also the mother of Matty Healy, the lead singer of pop rock group the 1975.
Although now home, Andrea said her life was still being impacted.
She admitted she “still hates January” and said: “It’s now February, and I’m still not well enough to handle normal stuff like getting up and rushing out the door to do the jobs I’d been booked to do, because every part of that process would end with me falling down, or at the very least sitting on a tube station floor feeling very unwell and embarrassed at the stares.
“I’m still having ‘funny turns’ while out for a walk, or attempting the mildest of exercise.”
She concluded: “It means I haven’t really started 2025 yet.”
HEALTH WOES
Back in 2023, she sparked health fears after she admitted she had been ill for three months.
At the time, she took to her Instagram page to post a selfie with her husband after admitting her “absolute exhaustion.”
Back in 2018, she told how she was “too scared to go to the doctors” after being diagnosed with life-threatening vasculitis.
All this came before the Scottish broadcaster showed off the results of her lipo procedure which left her bedbound.
Meanwhile, Andrea quit her Loose Women role in November 2020.
She revealed she had made the difficult decision so that she could focus on her website and brand, This Girl is on Fire.
The website is a lifestyle site that is designed to inspire women.
Andrea told how she was allowed home to sleep after struggling to sleep in the ward[/caption]
The Scottish presenter lost 80 per cent capacity in one lung[/caption]
