{"id":313169,"date":"2025-12-13T02:43:15","date_gmt":"2025-12-13T02:43:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/313169\/"},"modified":"2025-12-13T02:43:15","modified_gmt":"2025-12-13T02:43:15","slug":"mum-collapsed-on-floor-after-telling-daughter-its-too-early-to-wake-up","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/313169\/","title":{"rendered":"Mum collapsed on floor after telling daughter ‘it’s too early to wake up’"},"content":{"rendered":"

She was rushed into intensive care on Christmas Day\"MumMum Holly with her daughter Isabella (Picture: Collect\/PA Real Life)<\/p>\n

Christmas is a day that should be for many mum’s one of the happiest days in the calendar – however for Holly Dougan it’s 24 hours of “terror” after she collapsed to the floor and rushed into intensive care last year.<\/a><\/p>\n

In the run-up to Christmas last year, Holly, an early years teacher who lives in Liverpool, experienced pain on the left side of her neck, which she believed was causing her headaches. She visited her GP <\/a>on December 12 and was diagnosed with a migraine \u2013 at the time, Holly did \u201cnot think too much of it\u201d and continued taking pain relief medication.<\/p>\n

On Christmas Eve 2024, Holly and her husband, Gary, 29, took their daughter Isabella to see some Christmas lights <\/a>and \u201cput carrots outside for Santa\u2019s reindeer\u201d. The family went to bed \u201cso excited\u201d for the next day, wearing matching Christmas pyjamas.<\/p>\n

At 5am on Christmas morning<\/a>, Isabella woke up, but Holly decided it \u201cwas a bit early\u201d to start the day and settled her back down. Holly returned to bed and \u201cfelt fine\u201d until waking again at 8.30am to get her daughter up.<\/p>\n

The mum told PA: \u201cI got to her bedroom door and my legs just went from beneath me, and I felt really dizzy. I managed to get myself back into bed but I got a really sharp pain on the left side of my head and down my left arm.<\/p>\n

\u201cI said to Gary \u2018I need an ambulance\u2019 \u2013 I never thought I was having a stroke, but I knew something wasn\u2019t right and I was really scared.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"HollyHolly collapsed to the floor and was rushed into intensive care (Picture: Collect\/PA Real Life)<\/p>\n

Holly called an ambulance<\/a> and was on the phone for around six minutes, and approximately two minutes later, the paramedics arrived at their door.<\/p>\n

Holly said: \u201cI remember my face felt a bit funny, and had started to droop at this point and I couldn\u2019t swallow and the muscles in my throat weren\u2019t working \u2013 I was trying to be sick but nothing was happening. My speech did go quite slurred and I remember the paramedics saying my symptoms pointed to a stroke. I remember saying I\u2019m 27 \u2013 I can\u2019t be having a stroke.\u201d<\/p>\n

Holly was rushed to Aintree Hospital<\/a>, where a CT scan confirmed she had suffered a stroke. Doctors later confirmed her stroke was caused by a tear in her left coronary artery, which supplies oxygen-rich blood to the left side of the heart.<\/p>\n

She said: \u201cDoctors said my headaches and pain in my neck might have been linked \u2013 it could have been the start of it. There\u2019s nothing to say that if the GP sent me to have some scans they would have picked anything up at the time though, or if they would have been able to do anything to prevent it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Holly then received thrombolysis \u2013 medication used to dissolve blood clots blocking arteries or veins \u2013 but began to feel \u201cvery tired\u201d as her parents and siblings rushed from Stockport to see her.<\/p>\n

She also noticed she was \u201cbreathing really quickly\u201d before being surrounded by a team of medical staff, as she was aspirating on her vomit, meaning she was inhaling vomit or stomach contents into her lungs.<\/p>\n

Following further tests, doctors discovered she had experienced heart failure, developed a lung infection and was suffering from sepsis. She was taken into intensive care \u2013 all on Christmas Day.<\/p>\n

Holly was then diagnosed with takotsubo cardiomyopathy, which, according to the British Heart Foundation, is a condition where the heart muscle changes shape and suddenly weakens, usually triggered by severe emotional or physical stress.<\/p>\n

She said: \u201cIn intensive care, I was on 80% oxygen but they managed to eventually wean it down so I didn\u2019t need it anymore. It was all just a blur and quite dramatic.\u201d<\/p>\n

While in intensive care, she also required an NG tube \u2013 a thin plastic tube inserted through the nostril and down to the stomach \u2013 as she was still struggling to swallow.<\/p>\n

She had the tube for around a week, and once her speech \u201cwent back to normal\u201d, she moved on to a pureed diet. After five days in intensive care, Holly remained in hospital for around three weeks for monitoring.<\/p>\n

Throughout this period, her body was \u201cweak\u201d and she had to \u201clearn how to walk again\u201d, using both a frame and a walking stick. When she was eventually discharged and returned home, she, Gary and Isabella celebrated Christmas on January 21 \u2013 by then she was able to walk unaided.<\/p>\n

She said: \u201cGary left all the decorations up, and we hadn\u2019t even opened our presents! I found it hard though, I didn\u2019t want to get into bed because it reminded me of that day. I had to throw away my Christmas pyjamas because I just found them too triggering.\u201d<\/p>\n

The mum went on to have weekly counselling sessions because of her \u201ctraumatic experience\u201d and is currently on the waiting list to receive further support from the Stroke Association.<\/p>\n

This Christmas, Holly, Isabella and Gary will be going to Gary\u2019s family\u2019s home in Northern Ireland, and Holly is looking forward to \u201cbeing in a different house\u201d.<\/p>\n

Holly added: \u201cI think there needs to be more awareness about it (having a stroke) \u2013 when I was in hospital, I was just in shock. I\u2019ll be keeping Christmas magical for the kids, but I probably will need a few minutes on my own on Christmas Day to have a cry. I feel like it\u2019ll be a big milestone, that first anniversary, and I\u2019ll be thinking about what happened that time last year.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Stroke Association is the leading charity in the UK providing lifelong support for all stroke survivors and their families. This Christmas, you can help the Stroke Association support more stroke survivors at every step of their recovery.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"She was rushed into intensive care on Christmas DayMum Holly with her daughter Isabella (Picture: Collect\/PA Real Life)…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":313170,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[2209,59,102,708,2207,2205,2206,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-313169","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health","tag-aintree-hospital","tag-gb","tag-health","tag-liverpool","tag-people","tag-real-life","tag-real-lives","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/313169","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=313169"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/313169\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/313170"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=313169"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=313169"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=313169"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}