Help Emma get some Answers and save her life

Hi, My name is Emma and I’ve started this go fund me page to help our very good friend Emma a chance to seek medical assistance in London. Emma has been going through hell since 2020 and without any answers from local hospitals, her health is deteriorating rapidly and she desperately needs to get to London and privately pay for a DR to look at her case and save her life…..

Emma’s family have been by her side from the start and with her parents, now unable to work because of the worry and care Emma needs , I am asking for any help whatsoever to help cover the costs of the medical bills and to ease the pressure.

Any amount, big or small would mean the world to them…..

Emma’s story

Emma is one of the most laid back, sweetest people you could wish to meet, she was loving life, travelling doing everything that every 20something year old should be doing, then in August 2020 in the midst of the pandemic Emma woke up one day feeling unwell and vomiting. A few days later after realising it wasn’t just a 24 hour bug she went to the doctors who told her she had food poisoning, they did all the relevant tests and waited for results. When the results came back they said it wasn’t actually food poisoning either, this is when Emma turned into a medical mystery.

Over the next few months Emma went on to lose 8 stone, still vomiting every day, collapsing with malnutrition, her heart rate was far too slow dropping to a rate of 45 bmp, her blood pressure was affected and we knew something was seriously wrong with her but still no one knew what it was. She was accused of starving herself, making herself sick, taking drugs, the list is endless, no one believed her.

The tests started and the doctors tried to get to the bottom of it. After a few 999 calls all hours of the day and night, numerous hospital stays. Emma went on a trip to visit family where she took ill and was admitted to another hospital where she was admitted for months, after she was discharged from her local hospital with IBS.

Whilst in hospital in England she was diagnosed with gastroparesis, and after nearly three months of being there she was discharged with a NJ (feeding) tube and able to continue on with her new life.

Two months later her feeding tube displaced and a decision was finally made that Emma need a jejunostomy. After the surgery in her local hospital Emma was unable to tolerate the feed. Within a couple of weeks she was transferred over to an Intestinal Failure Unit in another hospital.

After two and a half months they realised that Emma’s jejunostomy had actually been placed into the bottom of the small bowel and not at the top. She then required corrective surgery in another hospital. After over five months in hospital, within four days of the corrective surgery she was allowed home.

Gastroparesis (also known as stomach paralysis) is a rare condition which affects the bowels and digestive system, in Emma’s case these have stopped working almost completely, she also has Elhers Danlos Syndrome which makes this illness even harder for her to deal with.

Along the way Emma has been let down massively by her local hospital. Despite three admittances this year alone for over 12 weeks in total, as she is yet again unable to tolerate her jejunostomy feeding after contracting Covid, to be sent home after each occasion expecting for her to thrive, despite no improvement or answers.

3 years have gone by with an obscene amount of hospital admissions, repeating her case over and over again, to be still getting asked the same questions over and over again.

Emma is more poorly now than ever, she is unable to tolerate any feed as it’s too painful, any fluids or food taken orally comes back up straight after, she’s still losing weight, still weak, still having trouble with her blood pressure and her heart rate dipping rapidly, she’s unable to keep herself hydrated and is constantly attached to a syringe driver to keep her nausea and sickness as low as possible.

Her main focus over the past 3 years has always been to return to work, regain some normality and get back to living her life, which unfortunately hasn’t been an option due to the deterioration of her health.

We can’t believe after 3 years of being under the local heath board, we are now having to reach out for financial support to get her the private health care she needs.

We are at point where we as her family and friends are desperate for answers, we hope to get a private consultation appointment with a hospital in London in the hope that they may be able to help in some way.

We would appreciate any financial support, however big or small or medical advise to help get Emma to where she needs to be to be able to live her life.

Thank you all for your support and taking the time to read this.