The 27-year-old mother left to fight for her life in hospital weeks after giving birth

A mum who was left fighting for her life in hospital just weeks after giving birth has revealed the moment she thought she was going to die.

Elleyce Whiteley, from Wigan, was long gone from welcoming her son Jax into the world when he developed a life-threatening condition – with doctors telling her family she might not make it.

The 27-year-old was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes during her pregnancy and was placed on insulin until Jax was born on January 10.

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After the baby girl was born, her sugars started to rise again. He was later prescribed semaglutide, a diabetes drug that has the same active ingredient as the popular weight loss drug Ozempic.

The mother claims she should have increased her dose after four weeks, but miscommunication between doctors meant that this never happened.

She claims this led to her running out of medication after a month – seeing her blood sugar rise to dangerously high levels.

As her condition continued to worsen, Elleyce began to suffer from sickness, nausea and stomach pains. She also needed the toilet more often, could not see well, felt confused and very thirsty.

The mother claims she was bounced between doctors in about six weeks as her blood sugar continued to spiral out of control.

But she claims that by the time she got an appointment and was restarted, it was too late – her blood had turned acidic, a terrifying and life-threatening condition called diabetic ketoacidosis.

Elleyce, who works at the Armed Forces Center in Wigan, initially thought she had postnatal depression due to exhaustion.

Just weeks later, she found herself fighting for her life in the hospital. “It was quite a surreal experience,” she said. “My whole body started to feel like it wasn’t mine.”

Just before she was rushed to the hospital, Elleyce’s mother, Laura, offered to take care of Jax so she could rest. The two thought she was probably sleep deprived as a new mother.

But within just five minutes of her mother leaving, Elleyce began gasping for breath as she struggled to keep food or water down.

An ambulance was called and the mother was rushed to the hospital, where doctors began to resuscitate her.

“I don’t remember getting to the hospital or the trip to the hospital,” the mother added. “I just remember being taken away in the ambulance. When I heard my mother crying, I didn’t know how bad it was, but I didn’t expect it to be as bad as it was.”

As doctors battled to save Elleyce’s life, they told her devastated family to prepare for the worst.

There were fears that she would have to be put into an induced coma, but thankfully she started to respond to treatment.

As she began to recover, she was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes and started taking insulin again.

She spent six days in hospital before going home to recover – but did not regain her sight for two weeks in a terrifying turn of events.

“I thought it was postnatal depression because I was physically and mentally exhausted,” she said.

“I didn’t know I was that stupid, I thought I was sleep deprived which made me sick.

“Also, my son was going to have surgery on his cleft lip and palate – which he had last week – so I thought the combination of all of that was making me crazy and I was so emotional and crying all the time . Since I have been well, all signs of depression have disappeared.”

Elyce is now on the road to recovery and continues to take insulin while taking advice from a dietitian.

Now looking to the future, the mum wants to raise awareness of diabetes among young people and is set to raise money for the charity Diabetes UK through the Million Step Challenge.

“When I first came home, I spent the next week crying randomly after it sank, that I was literally at death’s door,” she said.

“I only had an hour when I was in resuscitation to respond to the treatment or they were going to put me into a coma.

“It made me think about the fact that I could have died and left my son without a safety net, so I will be taking out life insurance soon to make sure that doesn’t happen.

“It’s so weird because it’s surreal, you never think something like this can happen to you, and when it does, it puts everything into perspective.

“I am so lucky to have received amazing care while in the hospital and to have the most amazing support network to rally around and take care of my boy when I couldn’t.”

To donate to the Elleyce fundraiser or find out more, access the link by clicking here.