After one terrifying test result, Heather was admitted to hospital immediately

06:04, 22 Oct 2025Updated 06:30, 22 Oct 2025

Heather Bluer in hospital after her transplant(Image: Handout)

‘I started having what I thought were panic attacks, I reluctantly accepted medication for anxiety and depression, but I thought I was dying…’

Heather Bluer has always been susceptible to chest infections. And as an adult, she was told she had a genetic condition, alpha-1 antitrypsin deficiency, that can affect the lungs and liver.

But when she started suffering mysterious panic attack-like symptoms during the Covid-19 pandemic, Heather knew something wasn’t right.

“I shielded very strictly in lockdown, once it had passed and I began to socialise and reintegrate, I started having what we thought were panic attacks,” explained Heather, a 45-year-old lawyer from Bolton.

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“I’d have them in the supermarket, for example. I felt as though I couldn’t breathe and assumed they were being brought on by challenges I was having in my personal life and the shock of reintegrating to society.

“I had been losing a lot of weight and became very unwell, almost crippled by anxiety, to the point where my boss told me to take some time off and seek medical advice.

“At first my GP treated me for anxiety and depression. I reluctantly accepted medication but rapidly became more unwell with various other symptoms, I was a mess and hadn’t been able to leave the house for eight weeks.

“I told my GP I didn’t feel it was a mental illness and refused to take any more medication, insisting on further tests. I actually said to the GP I think I’m dying.”

Further tests revealed the sinister reason she’d been having panic attacks – she was running out of oxygen. After one terrifying result, Heather was admitted to hospital immediately.

“After getting a heart scan, by which point I was in a wheelchair because I could no longer walk from the swelling, they told me the right-hand side of my heart was enlarged and leaking,” said Heather.

“They thought this was being caused by the issues with my lungs. After taking my oxygen saturation levels, which were so low they were not compatible with life, I was immediately admitted, put into a bed and linked up to various machines and oxygen.

“The panic attacks hadn’t been brought on by stress or anxiety, it was because I was so physically unwell and my oxygen levels were so low I actually couldn’t breathe which made me panic.”

Heather Bluer with her two children(Image: Handout)

Heather was given the life-changing news that she needed a heart and double lung transplant. Although, it was eventually decided that with a double lung transplant, her heart would repair itself with appropriate medication repair itself.

Her poor health meant it took longer than usual to be placed on the transplant list. And over the next two years her health significantly declined.

Heather became completely bed-bound and required daily carers as she tried to raise her two children.“A couple of times I was given 48 hours to live, I caught Covid a few times and life was generally very grim,” shared Heather,

“I struggle to remember a lot of it as I was on such high levels of morphine, but I will never forget the feeling of each day wondering ‘will today be the day I die’.“Every day was just a case of ticking another one off.

“I never verbalised the idea of dying as that would have made it become more real, but I was definitely aware of the reality of my situation – even if I was never outright told I was actually on end of life care.”

Heather’s health crisis took a huge toll on her family.

“It was horrendous for my family and friends, I knew it was difficult for them but you’re so unwell your view of the world is very selfish as you’re just trying to survive.

“As amazing as they are, they could never fully understand just how it feels to fight for every breath and think is this my last. The demands I put on them must have been horrific, especially on top of other commitments they had.“My then-13-year old-daughter was regularly drawing up my morphine and called 999 late at night more than once.

“My parents were my primary support, it’s only now I can reflect and I cannot begin to imagine what it must have been like for them.”

Heather Bluer in hospital before her transplant(Image: Handout)

Finally, at 2.15pm on June 19, 2024, Heather got the call that a donor had become available and she needed to get to Wythenshawe Hospital immediately.

Heather was being sent to Manchester’s world-renowned Heart and Lung Transplant Centre. The unit is one of only five specialist centres in the UK offering adult heart and lung transplantation, and the only one serving patients in the north west of England.Just over 12 hours after receiving the call, she was in surgery. “I have such limited recollection of the whole day, I just remember thinking ‘f****** hell this is it’ – it didn’t seem real,” said Heather.

“I genuinely thought I was being wheeled to my death as I’d always believed I would not survive surgery, despite never verbalising that to anyone.

“All I remember is the call and then coming round in the intensive care unit to a nurse saying my name and asking me to open my eyes.

“It was only following surgery did I learn I had a matter of days left to live if I hadn’t received my transplant.“It was a really strange feeling, I questioned whether I was actually alive or had instead died.

“But there was also an overwhelming feeling of guilt, someone had to die for me to live, and I carry this with me to date.”

Heather was always susceptible to chest infections as a child and as an adult was told she had a genetic condition, alpha-1 antitrypsin deficiency that can affect the lungs and liver(Image: Claire Riding KissTheBridePhotog)

As Heather still grapples with the complex feelings that can come from having such a life-altering experience, she says her ‘transplant family’ have always been there – even when she was ‘screaming in agony at 3am’.

“I was in safe hands, every single member of staff was incredible with me, there is not enough praise I can give them,” she said.“Somebody said to me at the start of the journey regarding that you become part of the transplant family, which I only now fully appreciate.

“You absolutely do, they’re there for the ups and downs, they’re there when you’re screaming in agony at 3am, they’re the ones holding your hand, wiping your tears, pushing you, washing you and helping you go to the toilet.

“Many of them will know more in some ways than my friends and family as you try not to tell loved ones everything in an attempt to protect them. They get you through the darkest and scariest of times.

“They’re not just doing a job, it’s clear they genuinely care and it’s not a job to those people – it’s a life.

“How they do what they do I will never know, little things often showed their level of genuine empathy and care, like remembering how you have your tea or how I want the door open at night.”

Heather was told she needed a heart and double lung transplant, although it was eventually decided that with a double lung transplant(Image: Handout)

Heather’s transplant completely changed her perspective on life. She was eager to seize every opportunity, but she learned she was at the start of a long road to recovery.“Once I had my new lungs, having been on end-of-life care, my attitude was just to get back out into the world and get on with life, so I pushed to leave hospital quickly. I understand now why they wanted to keep me longer,” said Heather.“Having a transplant isn’t the cure, it’s a treatment and needs to be managed and cared for the rest of my time.

“There are restrictions and side effects caused by my medication regiment, there are always hospitals trips, I can’t go out in the sun due to risk of skin cancer and so on, it’s a lifelong commitment to a new normality but a very small price to pay for life!

“What it has given me is a greater value of the little things, I get to see my amazing children grow up and see milestones I never thought possible.

“Until recently I had never seen my son play football, I can take my daughter shopping, I can enjoy eating without issue, I can see family and friends without them being my carers. I get to be a mum again! 12 months ago I never would have thought this possible.

“I am alive and this is thanks to not only the amazing team at Wythenshawe but the incredible gift of life from my donor and their amazing family, debts that I can never begin to repay.

“I tell my story not for sympathy or pity, but to raise awareness of the amazing job the Wythenshawe Heart and Lung Transplant Centre do and raise awareness on organ donation. If someone reading this can save just one life, it’s worth doing.”

It takes minutes to become an organ donor – with more information available at www.organdonation.nhs.uk or on the NHS App.