Daughters save Lanark mum’s life after collapse

Mhairi Ramage suffered a sudden pulmonary embolism – a blood clot in her lung – passed out and stopped breathing.

“My daughters brought me back from the brink,” she said. “I owe them my life.”

Mhairi is back at home now with daughters Debbie (19) and Samantha (15), although she has been warned that her condition is still life-threatening until the clot is dispersed.

Debbie is studying professional cookery at college and Samantha is at school but, fortunately, both were at home for the September holiday when Mhairi collapsed.

“I was short of breath for a couple of days,” she said, looking back on her collapse.

“I really didn’t feel very well. I sat down on the bed and then I was away. That was it.”

Mhairi had stopped breathing, turned grey, and her lips were purple.

Samantha ran to call an ambulance and Debbie remained with her mum, shouting at her to “come back” and hitting her chest.

“I don’t know what I would do without my mum,” said Debbie.

Mhairi said: “Before I heard her shouting it was all black, with gold sparkly lines.

“Then I heard her shouting ‘mum, don’t die on me! mum, don’t give up on me!’ and I felt I had to go back. I could not do that to them.

“When I came back and started breathing again, Samantha was holding my hand.”

A rapid response paramedic arrived at the house and Mhairi was rushed to Wishaw General where medical staff discovered the large pulmonary embolism.

She was there for 10 days and, although back home now, she has to do nothing for the next couple of months.

“Pulmonary embolisms are usually only found during autopsies, so you are extremely lucky if you make it,” said Mhairi.

“We were lucky it was a bank holiday,” she said. “If it had not been, they would not have been here to bring me back, I had stopped breathing.

“I know if they hadn’t been there I would be dead at 41 and those two amazing girls wouldn’t have a mum.

“I think they are amazing. I just want everybody to know how brilliant they are. They saved my life. I would not be here if it had not been for them.”

Mhairi is proud of the fact that her daughters stayed calm and took action, and now she believes that pupils should learn First Aid at school.

She hopes to speak to the rector at Lanark Grammar about the possibility of starting classes.

And, although it might not have helped her, she is suggesting that pupils could have a “dress down Friday” to raise funds for a defibrillator to help in heart attacks.