A Tempo mother is greatly concerned about her daughter’s health as she continues to lose weight with no medical explanation.

In a tearful interview, Nicola Burrows told The Impartial Reporter that her daughter Rhiannon Thompson (23) has lost over two stone in a matter of weeks after returning from Tenerife with severe stomach pains and vomiting: “She came back on February 29 and I went to see her on March 3. She just said that she felt really sick and had pains in her tummy. She couldn’t stand up straight and she was really grey. She’s not able to keep food down and she’s struggling to keep fluids down.”

Nicola explained that Rhiannon was 9st13 when she went away but when she was weighed in hospital on March 19, she had gone down to 7st8.

On the advice of her GP, which she visited the week she returned home from Tenerife, Rhiannon went down to A&E to urgently have her bloods taken.

“They came back okay but she was dehydrated so she was put on an IV drip and given paracetamol. She was told by A&E that it was gastric flu and she was discharged then, sent home and told to just continue to try and keep eating,” shared Nicola.

However, due to her excessive vomiting and extensive weightloss, Rhiannon’s GP advised her to go back to A&E.

“She went in and they kept her in. She was given an ultrasound which showed that her liver was inflamed. The consultant told her that it was a possibility that when she had her gallbladder out last year, that one of the stones had possibly gone into her liver so he wanted an MRI scan done and then a camera put down her throat. She was on drips, her blood pressure was low and in their care she lost 10lbs in weight,” said Nicola, concern for her daughter evident in her voice.

Nicola noted that on March 19, a dietician was sent to see Rhiannon. “They have this policy that when you hit a certain weight, the dietician team become involved. She said that Rhiannon was malnourished and she asked if she agreed to be tube fed and Rhiannon said she would, whatever it takes to get better. She was on morphine and IV drips right up until they decided to discharge her on Friday morning (March 20),” said a distraught Nicola, adding: “She is starving hungry, but she can’t eat and the pain in her stomach is horrendous.”

On Saturday, March 21 Rhiannon deteriorated more and was taken back to A&E.

“A&E phoned the medical team again and they said her bloods were normal three days ago, so they just sent her home. No drips for fluid even though the consultant in casualty had said her mouth looked dehydrated but he couldn’t repeat the bloods because the medical consultant had said no,” said Nicola, who explained that Rhiannon is now at home and that her husband is looking after her.

“She cannot stand or sit without severe pain in her tummy, breathlessness and her blood pressure is low. It’s just mad that they sent her home,” she added.

Nicola explained that her daughter would have quite severe anxiety that is medicated and that she has had previous problems with depression but has since been discharged. Rhiannon also experiences Tourette’s which is increased by her anxiety.

“Her Tourette’s is horrendous when she gets anxious,” said Nicola, adding that due to the pain and distress Rhiannon was experiencing, she involuntarily hit herself in the eye, causing bruising.

“The doctor who discharged her has referred her to a psychiatric team. She spoke to the psychologist on Monday and Rhiannon told her that that’s absolutely rubbish, that there’s nothing wrong with her psychologically and she even told the doctor that she has spoken to her therapist and they said that she was stable. She’s off all medication and there’s nothing wrong with her in that respect,” Nicola explained.

“She’s just dying in front of our eyes. Can you imagine seeing your daughter go from 9st13 to 7st8 in two weeks and no medical explanation for it.”

On Wednesday, March 25 Nicola told The Impartial Reporter that Rhiannon is getting weaker. “She is having 10ml of Fortisip (a food for special medical purposes) every hour but not much is staying down. She is taking the dietician’s advice that she has to have solid food but that’s not staying down at all,” she said, adding:

“She has quite bad chest pains and is aching all over but when she eats and takes the dietician’s advice, it’s making her chest pains far worse and more intense.”

Rhiannon was taken to A&E at SWAH by ambulance later that day. There she had her sugar levels topped up and was given anti-sickness tablets before she was sent home again.

Speaking to this newspaper on Wednesday, April 1, Nicola explained that Rhiannon had her bloods taken at the doctors that morning.

“At the weekend an ambulance came out and checked her bloods, and her sugar levels were in a normal range but the doctors have tested her bloods today and her sodium levels are low. They have been sent to a lab as urgent and they are hoping to get some of the sodium results back today because if they are too low she has to go into hospital, to have drips of sodium to get her levels back up.”

“Her energy levels are extremely low. Her husband is having to carry her to the toilet and carry her back because she is so breathless when she stands up,” said Nicola.

“The doctors yesterday (Wednesday) said to her that they’ve looked through all her scans and all her x-rays and it looks like everything is clear but she needs an endoscopy because obviously something is there,” she shared, adding.

“She could have picked up a bug in Tenerife which has affected the lining of her stomach but for some reason her body is not able to fight it. Her immune system is so low now and she’s got a throat infection.”

“I’m just so concerned because she is in isolation and she doesn’t want to have to go to the doctors or A&E because her immune system is low so she’s more likely to pick up bugs or the coronavirus,” Nicola told this newspaper.

A spokeswoman for the Western Health and Social Care Trust said: “Due to confidentiality/privacy reasons the Trust does not comment on the treatment and care of individual patients.”

My biggest fear is that she is going to die and if she gets this coronavirus she has not got the immune system to fight it at the moment,” said Nicola, bursting into tears.

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