Reality star Louise Thompson has revealed she became seriously ill on a recent holiday and was losing “cupfuls” of blood every 20 minutes before being rushed to hospital in the UK.
The former Made In Chelsea star, 33, said she booked an early flight home from Antigua to seek treatment in January after feeling weak and disorientated while away with her family.
She has suffered a string of physical symptoms and PTSD after almost dying during the birth of her two-year-old son, Leo.
The star also suffers from ulcerative colitis, a chronic bowel condition leading to parts of the gut becoming swollen, inflamed, and ulcerated, and lupus, a chronic autoimmune condition, that has left her with exhaustion and joint pain.
She has not previously disclosed information about her current condition.
In a post shared to her 1.4m followers on Instagram, Thompson said she became so ill that she could not walk or pick up her little boy, and that she was “disoriented a lot” but “pushed through”.
However, the “fear kept escalating when I was going to the loo every 20 minutes losing cup fulls of blood”, she said.
Thompson said she “struggled” on the flight home but it was a “small price to pay” to get back to the UK and the NHS, as “things got worse quite quickly”.
She told her followers her hospital stay had been “scary”, saying: “Being put to sleep is scary. Central and arterial lines are scary. Bags and balloons and drains coming out of your body are scary.”
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However, she also assured them: “I have experienced some of the best care I have ever received, especially in ITU (Intensive Therapy Unit). I have cried over how compassionate and good the care has been.
“I will have quite some thanking to do. Lots of letters. Lots of things I can hopefully help with in the future. I’m nowhere near that place yet though. Let’s walk first.”
Thompson appeared in Made In Chelsea’s first series in 2011, progressing to become one of the E4 show’s main characters.
Her partner Ryan Libbey joined the cast in 2016 during filming in the south of France, and the couple got engaged in 2018.
