Chloe Goodman almost died after doctors dismissed her inflamed appendix as "period pain."
Chloe Goodman
The 'Ex on the Beach' star was recently rushed to hospital in an ambulance after she collapsed from extreme stomach cramps but little did she know that her life was in critical danger as her appendix and a cyst were just hours away from bursting and leaking poison into her body.
Speaking to The Sun Online, she said: "I woke up on Saturday morning feeling fine but within half an hour I was screaming in pain. I'm usually a really healthy girl, I'm never ill or in hospital and the last thing I was thinking was calling the ambulance, but the pain was excruciating and I was vomiting, so I phoned my mum crying my eyes out.
"While on the phone to her I passed out and she immediately called an ambulance. The next thing I knew the paramedics were in my bedroom and then putting me in the ambulance. They gave 8mg of morphine and the maximum they can give someone is 10mg, and it was the only thing that could stop me passing out. By the time I got to A&E the pain was still so bad I wanted to die. The doctors were 100 percent certain that my appendix was about to burst and that I needed to go to theatre because it was life threatening.
"At the time it didn't register that I might die, I had gone from being fine to in so much pain, that I just didn't care about anything other than getting it out. I was so desperate, I didn't care what I looked like or that the surgery was botched, I just needed this pain to stop."
However, when the 23-year-old reality TV star was wheeled down to the surgical ward, she was subjected to 36 hours of medical blunders, wrong information and misdiagnosis.
She explained: "I went to surgical assessment and they told me they weren't going to do the operation as they thought it might have been some ruptured cysts on my ovaries.
"I was arguing with them as I knew it wasn't my womb or ovaries, but they said they wouldn't take my word and were just going to do an ultrasound in the morning. I knew if my appendix burst I was f***ed and all they were doing was pilling me up to my eyeballs, so I felt out of it.
"I had the ultrasound and was told it was fluid and a ruptured cyst, but I know my own body and I knew they were wrong. I was already upset that they were telling me it was to with my ovaries when I knew they were wrong and it was something life threatening.
"But then a different consultant came into my room and told me, 'I've seen a lot of appendicitis, this isn't it, you've got period pain.' She treated me like she thought I was just some silly little 23-year-old girl and she was happy just to send me home."
However, Chloe and her family demanded to see a senior surgeon and he agreed that there was something a lot more sinister causing her excruciating pain and decided to operate.
She said: "They didn't know what they were going to find, but agreed to do keyhole surgery.
"When I woke up they told me that not only was my appendix was just two hours away from bursting, which would have been deadly and poisoned my organs, but I had a cyst on it double the size that was also about to rupture. The surgeons admitted they were shocked it hadn't all burst already. I had internal bleeding in my pelvis as well, which I think must have been the fluid they thought they had seen in the ultrasound."
But the brunette star's traumatic ordeal didn't end there as she was still pumped with contradicting information when she came round and feared she couldn't have children.
She told the publication: "The next morning they tried to tell me they had removed cysts from my ovaries, which was heartbreaking and scary as I was worried I couldn't have kids. I forced them to reread the notes and they admitted they were wrong and it was just my appendix.
"If I wasn't a strong person and my family weren't persistent and refused to let them have the bed, they would have sent me home and would have died from my appendix bursting."
Chloe has now been discharged from hospital and is recuperating at home but she has admitted her medical emergency has changed her outlook on life.
She said: "I went to sleep on Friday night as happy as Larry in my world and woke up in an ambulance. I will forever be grateful for my mum calling them ambulance as I would have been lying there alone if she hadn't. If it wasn't for my mum then I definitely wouldn't be... where I am today. We caught it just in time."
Tagged in Chloe Goodman