Former Loose Women star Andrea McLean has revealed she was rushed to the hospital after her husband discovered her collapsed in the bathroom.
The TV personality opened up about her frightening experience, revealing that she was diagnosed with "severe pneumonia, Acute Kidney Injury, and sepsis"—a serious and life-threatening condition.
In a revealing post, the 55-year-old described suffering from flu-like symptoms for a week, including "sweating and shivering, with a raging temperature and chills," "pain in my chest and back," and dark urine before she suddenly collapsed.
Her husband, Nick Feeney, found her about an hour later and immediately contacted their GP, who instructed them to "call 999 right away."
McLean shared more details on her Substack blog, describing how she was in excruciating pain and "couldn’t stand" due to low blood pressure.
She also recalled the difficulty of being stretchered out, adding with a touch of humour, "I can say with confidence that travelling in the back of an ambulance isn’t as much fun as you think it would be."
“I can’t remember much about A&E other than it was thorough,” she continued. “Questions, scans, lots of needles, and possibly the most painful insertion of a catheter ever experienced.”
She added: “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.”
McLean explained that she spent two days and two nights in the Emergency Assessment Ward, receiving antibiotics while enduring "almost constant pain" and sensory overload, with the overwhelming sounds and smells of patients losing control of their bowels.
She later described her experience in a different ward, where she was surrounded by dementia patients who would often approach or shout at her. After spending a total of four days in hospital, she was allowed to return home to rest but had to go back daily for the next week to receive antibiotic drips.
Five weeks later, McLean revealed that her recovery has not been as swift as she had hoped. "My life is still not 'back to normal,'" she admitted.
The ITV star also expressed gratitude to her husband, whose life had effectively "stopped" during this time as he drove her to the hospital, waited for her at clinics for hours, and cooked dinner for the family before putting her to bed.
She added that her recovery is still ongoing. "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," she explained.
"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."
McLean left Loose Women in 2020 after co-hosting the daytime talk show since 2007. She left to focus on her writing career, publishing her self-help memoir This Girl Is on Fire: How to Live, Learn and Thrive in a Life You Love.
In 2022, she released two more books: You Just Need to Believe It: 10 Ways in 10 Days to Unlock Your Courage and Reclaim Your Power.
