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.
Sepsis is a life-threatening condition which occurs when the body has an extreme reaction to an infection – so immediate treatment was required for the popular TV star.
Andrea McLean, 55 – who has fronted the ITV daytime series numerous times – has now 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 nights in 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.
[bc_video account_id=”5067014667001″ application_id=”” aspect_ratio=”16:9″ autoplay=”” caption=”Andrea McLean reveals she turned DOWN Loose Women job with brutal jab about the panellists” embed=”in-page” experience_id=”” height=”100%” language_detection=”” max_height=”360px” max_width=”640px” min_width=”0px” mute=”” padding_top=”56%” picture_in_picture=”” player_id=”default” playlist_id=”” playsinline=”” sizing=”responsive” video_id=”6361938994112″ video_ids=”” width=”640px”]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.
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.
