Tara Joanna Hamer was a busy woman, going to the gym, working in the NHS and competing in beauty pageants. When she started to feel unwell, she put it down to tiredness from her busy life.
Tara, from Hengoed, Caerphilly, had been feeling unwell for quite some time, sleeping a lot, having ulcers in her mouth for a long period of time, and unexplained bruises all over her body. But she didn't think it was serious until she collapsed on November 22, 2022.
The former Miss Galaxy Wales was taken to the University Hospital of Wales, Cardiff, where she would spent the next month in intensive care on a life support machine suffering from multiple organ failure, pancreatitis, double pneumonia, and sepsis. She said: “999 was called as a collapsed and I was blue lighted to the Heath hospital. They worked on me for eight to nine hours, to stabilise me, before they could put me on a life support machine.
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“I was on a life support machine for 28 days. In [that time], I had pancreatitis, double pneumonia, and sepsis. I wasn’t showing any signs of improvement - I had to have a blood transfusion and they said on three separate occasions to my parents and my partner that they needed to prepare for the worst.”
During this time, Tara had “the battle of her life” as she had organ failure which led to her liver and kidneys not functioning as they should. Due to this, she also had a bruise on her right leg which eventually made her leg turn black and there was a strong possibility of having the bottom half amputated.
Tara said: “My mother told me they were just waiting for them to [come in to and] say ‘We’ve decided to amputate the leg.’ But thankfully it didn’t come to that.”
Instead, the critical care team tried another medication which started to show slight improvements in Tara’s condition. This led to them deciding to try and take Tara off the life support machine. However, the first attempt was unsuccessful, and they had to put her back under until they could try again a couple of days later.
Tara said: “They tried a few days after and they managed to take me off it and the sedation wore off and I woke up. I was still in a critical condition - I had drips everywhere, I couldn’t talk, I was just so ill.”
At this point, Tara still wasn’t able to eat or drink, in case she choked, and had to spend Christmas in the hospital. Her family came in on Boxing Day, but Tara was struggling to breathe and they had to put her back on the life support machine for a few days. After coming back around, Tara’s condition started to improve and she was moved from the critical care unit in UHW to The Grange Hospital, where she spent a month in an intensive care ward.
She added: “I was just so weak and so unwell. My parents were incredible and my partner who stood by me through everything - I couldn’t have done it without them.
“I continued to make progress and in January my consultant came in and said: ‘Are you ready to go home?’ - I started crying.”
Tara then received intense recovery treatment, which took her two and a half months to strengthen her leg so that she was “able to walk properly,” and is still pushing on in recovery treatment now. Tara added that she is grateful for the NHS and the support she received from the staff in the critical care unit that saved her life. She said: “They saved my life. They worked on me so hard and didn’t give up on me - I’m just in awe of them.”
Tara was in the hospital from November until the end of January, spending Christmas, New Year, and her birthday in a hospital room. She added: “I thank God every day and it’s a miracle how I’m still here and the treatment they gave me in the Heath was amazing.” She added that they went above and beyond caring for her, by brushing and plaiting her hair and even painting her nails.
During her recovery, Tara wanted to revisit the critical care team to thank them personally for saving her life and was surprised they knew who she was “straight away” when she called the unit.
Standing outside the unit with Hero chocolates and a card, Tara waited for one of the members of staff who treated her to come out to give them a “meaningful thank you” for saving her life. She said: “She came out and literally screamed - she was gobsmacked and started crying.” Tara said that the staff member gave her a hug and was surprised to see how well she was doing.
Tara’s next step is to hopefully raise money for the critical care team. She added: “They are heroes - if it wasn’t for them I wouldn’t be here. I find that really hard to get my head around and I was out of it for so long - 28 days on a life support machine, usually that would have been turned off.”
She added: “People are quick enough to complain about the NHS but I don’t think they get enough recognition for what they do - they save lives.”
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