She “couldn’t care” for her 14-week-old baby who was struck down with meningitis while she was hospital
Jodie with her baby Aiden(Image: Jodie Fairclough)
A mum-of-three who has been “stuck” in hospital for weeks “just wants to see her babies.” Mum Jodie Fairclough, 28, has three “beautiful young boys” and a fiancé at home, who she has only seen once in the last month, after suffering a cerebrospinal fluid leak (CSF) during an emergency C-section in June.
Jodie, from Kirkby, had the emergency C-section at Whiston Hospital to deliver the couple’s youngest son Aiden on June 18, following a “rough” pregnancy. She told the ECHO how she’d suffered “horrific sickness” and “reduced movements” with her baby and was told by doctors Aiden wouldn’t make it to his due date.
After the C-section everything “seemed to go downhill”, says Jodie. She said: “It wasn’t a nice experience. I had to have an epidural and three days later I started with a horrible headache and ringing in my ears. They [hospital staff] told me it sounded like I had CSF, but I was discharged.”
CSF is when the fluid that cushions the brain and spinal cord escapes through a tear or hole in the protective outer membrane, the dura mater. It’s rare, but can be caused if the epidural needle accidentally goes through the dura, CSF can leak out, causing a post-dural puncture headache (PDPH), a condition where the brain sags due to reduced fluid pressure.
Symptoms include headaches that improve with lying down, clear fluid draining from the nose or ear, and sometimes neck pain, ringing in the ears, or dizziness.
Jodie, whose eldest sons are Mason, 5, and Jacob, 21 months, says she “wasn’t getting any better” and went to Whiston Hospital days later, as she was starting to feel concerned about her health.
Jodie just wants to get home to her “beautiful boys”(Image: Jodie Fairclough)
She eventually had an epidural blood patch (EBP), which is a procedure used to treat headaches caused by CSF, by injecting the patient’s own blood into their epidural space to seal the leak and restore CSF pressure.
After the procedure, the mum says she completely lost her hearing in her left ear. She said: “I was losing weight due to the nausea. I could barely eat, I was suffering from headaches, hearing and visual disturbances and brain fog. I felt like I had Alzheimer’s.”
For months Jodie was back and forth with hospital appointments until her health deteriorated last month (September) and she collapsed. She later discovered the CSF had been affecting her blood pressure.
Jodie with her fiancé Declan and their three children, Mason, 5, Jacob, 21 months, and Aiden, 14 weeks, on their one visit to the hospital ward(Image: Jodie Fairclough)
She said: “I spent 25 hours in A&E at Aintree Hospital. Now, I’ve been here for almost one month trying to get better. I’ve been given migraine medication but keep collapsing due to my low blood pressure. It’s now affecting my whole body, I’m getting pulsating vision and tinnitus.”
During that time, Jodie’s 14-week-old son, Aiden, suffered meningitis. She said: “I couldn’t even care for my own baby because I was stuck in hospital. It was horrible, I couldn’t stop crying with worry about my baby. I just wanted to care for him but I was too poorly.” Thankfully he has now made a full recovery.
Since being admitted to hospital Jodie says she’s only been able to see her children once. She said: “We don’t want to bring them onto the hospital ward because Aiden’s immune system is already very low with him having meningitis so young. My illness is preventing me from caring for my children, it’s heartbreaking. They’ve been once.”
She added: “I just want to go home to my children and fiancé [Declan Guy, 28]. It’s a long time for a mother to be away from her children. My little boys need me, it’s been awful.
“It’s been hard for Declan too, he has his own health problems and he has now lost his job because he had to take so much time off to take care of me and our young boys. We’re suffering financially.”
Jodie has founded a support group for mums suffering from CSF and a friend, who she met through the group, has now set up a GoFundMe to raise money towards private care for Jodie, who claims she needs another blood patch procedure to “cure” her.
She said: “The sooner I can have this procedure the quicker I can get back to my babies. I’ve been in hospital for almost one month now and I’m still waiting to have it. I just want my life back and to be able to raise my boys.”
You can donate to the GoFundMe for Jodie’s treatment, here.