'Everything went black': How a new procedure saved Bundaberg mother
Doctors told this Bundaberg mum she "should not be alive" after a sudden collapse led to her being declared dead before a miraculous revival.
A Bundaberg mother of five is lucky to be alive after a freak medical episode spiralled into a harrowing 24-hour ordeal.
Priscilla Farrow, 44, was about to head out the door with her daughter on Tuesday, November 4, when she suddenly became ill and collapsed.
She said a split decision to hang clothes out on the line potentially saved her and her daughter’s life.
At about 12.30pm, on an ordinarily festive Melbourne Cup Day, Ms Farrow came in from hanging the clothes out, sat down at a table and told her son something felt off.
No sooner had she said those words, the retail worker collapsed.
“It felt like a heart attack,” she said.
“I could hear my son yelling for me to wake up”, but said she had no memory of what came after.
Her children later told her “she was as blue as a Smurf” when her daughter called 000.
The next time the Bundaberg mother came to, she was at the Bundaberg Base Hospital.
“It felt like someone was crushing my chest,” she said.
Soon after, she went into cardiac arrest and medically died.
There was no white light, “everything went black”, Ms Farrow said.
About midnight she was stable enough to be flown to the Gold Coast Hospital.
While there she learned her organs were shutting down and could hear the doctors yelling about her vitals.
The mother teared up as she recalled the moment.
“I should not be alive,” she said.
Doctors told her if her children had not been there, nor had acted so quickly she would have certainly died.
Ms Farrow is one of a few lucky patients to receive a breakthrough medical procedure used to save people with pulmonary embolisms.
The new technology currently being trialled at the Gold Coast University Hospital has helped more than 60 people.
It avoids the need for clot-busting drugs and instead relies upon a catheter and syringe to remove problem clots.
Incredibly, patients like Ms Farrow remain awake for the whole procedure.
She was awake when she heard doctors cheering that her “bloods” were back.
“They were amazing,” she said.
Mere weeks on, Ms Farrow is back at her Bundaberg home.
“I’m getting better every day,” she said.
While she will be on blood thinners for life, and can’t drive for the next six months, Ms Farrow said she’d been given a second chance at life.
Ms Farrow’s mother Danielle Rollings Feyen has created a GoFundMe campaign to help cover medical expenses.
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