A mother who was diagnosed with food poisoning while on holiday in Majorca, Spain, and had to cut short her holiday and fly home came to know later that she was actually suffering from a brain bleed.
“I nipped inside to change for the beach when I felt a smack on the back of my head–or something like it anyway–which is common for brain stuff,” Johnson, told South West News Service (SWNS).
She thought she was suffering from sunstroke, but a doctor told her she had food poisoning, Fox News quoted SWNS. “I thought I was dying,” she said.
Johnson’s ordeal continued after she returned home to Sheffield in the United Kingdom when she developed double vision. The situation worsened at a friend’s home and the mother of two collapsed.
She was transported to Northern General Hospital and a CT scan showed she had suffered from a brain bleed called a subarachnoid hemorrhage (SAH).
“The primary symptom is a sudden, severe headache. The headache is sometimes associated with nausea, vomiting, and a brief loss of consciousness,” explains Mayo Clinic.
Johnson had to be transferred to Royal Hallamshire Hospital where doctors told her she had internally bled for seven days. She underwent a two-hour repair procedure and was only allowed to return home ten days later.
“It was unbelievable that I’d survived a hemorrhage for seven days,” she told SWNS. “The doctors said that shouldn’t have been the case.”
Johnson, whose sons are 9 and 6, is thankful for being alive “I’m glad I persevered–for my sake, but also for Jay and Kye,” she told SWNS.
Another Misdiagnosis
In another case, a woman whose cough was thrice dismissed for allergies said it turned out to be cancer.A 27-year-old Las Vegas woman’s cough was dismissed by doctors as allergies three times, but on her fourth visit, the doctor diagnosed it as cancer.
Meagan Bechtold, a co-manager at Ulta Beauty, had a dry cough for about two months in 2018 and visited the doctor three times, but each time she was told it was a bad cold, allergies, or bronchitis.
Meagan and Chris canceled their holiday and went to go to the hospital right away. Her lungs were found to be filled with liquid and there was a 13-centimeter lung mass located in her diaphragm.
She was immediately started on a round of chemotherapy and couldn’t leave the hospital for 11 days. She lost 10 pounds, and suffered from constant nausea and mouth sores.
After her first round of chemotherapy, Meagan slept continuously for three days, according to Media Drum World.
During her second round of chemotherapy, Meagan’s white cell count was found to be extremely low.
“She had to get some boosters first to help increase her white cell count,” according to update on her GoFundMe campaign.
When her hair started to fall during the second round of chemotherapy, Meagan decided to shave it all off.
But she felt inspired by the stories of cancer survivors and felt motivated after seeing their “last chemo” or “officially cancer free” posts. She told Media Drum World, “I wanted that for myself.”
“My husband and my family tell me every single day how proud they are of me and how strong I am. They pushed me when I felt like giving up. The most important thing during all of this was to never lose sight of the goal, and no matter how bad and ugly things got, I had to remember to pick myself up,” she said.
