Loose Women’s McLean tells of hospital trauma

SCOTTISH TV presenter Andrea McLean has spoken about her near-death experience after she suffered a reaction to an anaesthetic in hospital.

The mother of two, who fronts the ITV programme Loose Women, had been operated on the previous day for surgery on a painful umbilical hernia.

She said: “For a few seconds my husband thought I had slipped away. It was so frightening. My whole head had swollen up, my throat closed over, I couldn’t breathe and I felt so faint and sick.

“They were telling me to take deep breaths, but I was looking round the room, with all these people running in and out.

“I was in a panic, not knowing what the hell had happened. That moment of waking up was the scariest bit.”

McLean, mother to Finlay, nine, and Amy, four, said her husband, builder Steve Toms, was with her in hospital a few weeks ago when she started to feel faint and sick.

The presenter’s head swelled up, her skin went white and she struggled to breathe.

Her husband ran into the hospital corridor screaming for help, and she was given oxygen, steroids and adrenalin.

Since leaving hospital she has suffered a panic attack in the shower after the trauma of what happened.