Lucky to be alive after blood clot

A STRABANE woman has said she is “incredibly lucky” to be alive after she was hospitalised with a pulmonary embolism – a clot in the lungs.

Coincidentally, Emer Maguire – who is a radio presenter, comedian and musician – is speaking out during Blood Clot Awareness Month. She said she wants to make people more aware of the condition as it can happen to anyone.

Although she says she is now on the mend, Emer had yet more troubles to content with in recent weeks when she took a severe allergic reaction to the clot medication and was rushed back to hospital.

“The past two weeks have been crazy,” Emer remarked.

“I’ve had the time of my life with an amazing hometown gig (at the Alley Theatre) alongside hosting some really wonderful events. However in the background I’ve been having a pretty rough time.

“I’ve been unwell this past few weeks, and in between my busy work schedule, I’ve spent much of my time in hospital.”

On Friday, February 18 Emer began to feel really unwell and was sent to hospital.

She continued, “At 4am on the Saturday a very sleepy and shocked me was diagnosed with a pulmonary embolism, which is a clot in the lungs,” she explained.

“But I’d events to host on the Monday, Tuesday and Friday, and my big hometown show was in the Alley the following Saturday, so I kept the news mostly to myself and got on with it.

“My bad luck continued after my diagnosis, when I had a severe allergic reaction to the injections I was given to prevent further clots. I was then back in hospital again on Thursday, March 3, to look for a suspected bleed in the brain, after a few more scary symptoms emerged.

“I’m now on the mend and raring to go for everything I have coming up – I can still work and gig no problem thank god – but life might look a little different for the time being until my treatment is stabilised.”

A four time TEDx speaker and an international award winning science communicator, Emer is also the award winning presenter of several BBC radio shows, including ‘Science and Stuff with Emer Maguire’ on BBC Radio Ulster, and ‘Where Words Fail, Music Speaks’ on BBC Radio Four.

“I am feeling incredibly lucky to be coming out of this so well,” she admitted. “Around one third of people with a pulmonary embolism die of cardiac arrest before they find out they have the clot. For this reason it’s referred to as the silent killer.

“This month is very coincidentally Blood Clot Awareness month so I wanted to make people aware of this condition.

“The reason so many people die before diagnosis is because symptoms can be very non-specific. However, I was ironically lucky to have some of the more severe symptoms, which was why my clot was detected. These included mild breathing issues, coughing – at night only for me – coughing up blood, chest pain, and dizziness. This can happen to anyone – I was not in any of the high risk categories yet it happened to me.

“Please make yourself and others aware of the symptoms and dangers of blood clots. And if anyone out there has any spare well wishes or good luck – send them my way.”

Emer concluded, “As ever, thank you to everyone for your continued support with my videos, content and gigs, and a special thanks to my family and friends for their love and care at this time. And to my excellent GP, the Royal Victoria Hospital and the Belfast City Hospital who collectively may have just saved my life.”

– For more information on Blood Clot Awareness month log onto www.stoptheclot.org