Glasgow woman who nearly died of coronavirus celebrates return to work

Caroline Ryan, 50, was discharged from hospital on June 28 2020, following a three month stay fighting covid, six weeks of which were in ICU.

Mum-of-one Caroline woke up after being put in an induced coma and instinctively checked her work emails – not realising colleagues had been holding candlelit vigils for her.

After falling ill in March 2020 Caroline feared she was going to die, and told husband Michael, 58, to ensure their son, Matthew, 19, was behaving himself if she passed away.

Fun-loving Caroline, from Summerston, Glasgow, was motivated to put everything into her physio so she could go on holiday again.

The family were due to jet off to Cyprus at the end of March 2020 around the time Caroline began to feel breathless and unwell, and went to a covid clinic before being transferred to the Glasgow Royal Infirmary.

She was taken in for surgery after being warned to say her goodbyes – and woke up six weeks later in a different hospital.

Caroline said: “The doctors came in and said I was going for surgery.

“I didn’t even ask what for.

“They asked if I had my mobile phone and told me to phone my husband and my family because I might not make it.

“I phoned my husband, Michael, and said listen, ‘they’ve told me I might not make it - keep that boy of ours, Matthew, on the straight and narrow and if I see you, I see you.

“’If not, I love you’. We were all a bit in shock.

“I’m not scared of dying, you’re scared for the people you leave behind.”

Caroline woke up six weeks later in the Golden Jubilee Hospital in Clydebank, West Dunbartonshire.

She added: “I couldn’t move. I couldn’t talk, which was worse.

“I work with people with physical disabilities and I was worried that they had tried to save me but I was left unable to do anything.”

One of the first things she did was check her work emails for her job as a manager for the Mungo Foundation, which helps care for people with physical and learning disabilities.

Caroline asked one of the nurses to take a picture of her in ICU and send it to her colleagues.

She said: “I had no idea that my colleagues had been lighting candles and praying for me for weeks.

“I thought I could just pick up where I left off.”

During the time she had been ill, she had suffered covid-related pneumonia, renal failure, blood clots, sepsis in her chest and heart complications and her family had been warned she might not survive.

After such a long time in a coma, she had to learn to do everything again.

Caroline added: “It was a case of small wins with the rehab.

“Every day I tried to do something that I hadn’t done before.

"Whether it was talking, writing my name, moving my ankles and move myself up my bed.”

Caroline was moved back to the GRI for more intensive physical rehab.

After three months, she was cheered as she left the hospital – and her work pals sat in their cars to watch, although her husband was late for picking her up.

“It was so emotional, such a lovely thing to get clapped out of hospital.

“I was greetin’, my hair was a mess, but when I got out all of my work colleagues were there in their cars, but my husband wasn’t because he was late.

“Still, I needed to get back to keep my two men at home in line.”

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Caroline has worked hard with her physios and occupational therapists to get out of her wheelchair and off oxygen, motivated by the prospect of a holiday.

She joked: “You can’t carry an oxygen tank and your duty free at the same time - one of them had to go.”

Since returning to her work in December she has been promoted and is getting better with each passing day.

Caroline said: “I wouldn’t be here without them.

"From the domestic staff and porters, office staff, right up to the nurses and the surgeons, they all saved my life.

"The NHS is an engine and it needs all these cogs to work and they are all an inspiration and they were there when I needed them. I’ve never felt so grateful to a group of people in my life. I’ll thank them for the rest of my life.”

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Dr George Chalmers, a Consultant Respiratory Physician based at GRI, who was part of the team which looked after Caroline, said: “I’m delighted to see Caroline have such a good outcome.

"She was extremely unwell with COVID-19 and had other complications, but she has worked so hard to get back to health.

“At the time, COVID-19 was a brand-new illness which none of us had dealt with before, so we had to come together and learn how to adapt very, very quickly.

"COVID-19 presented new challenges, and patients often had very low oxygen levels or complications that were different from other respiratory infections.

“Caroline is someone who is overflowing with positivity and it’s a real boost to see her coming through that experience.”