Health News

Greg Marshall, now 21, was looking forward to joining the Royal Marines when he developed a 'chest infection' in November 2016. After being prescribed antibiotics and an inhaler, Mr Marshall (pictured left before the ordeal) collapsed in a car park the following month. He was rushed to hospital, where doctors diagnosed him with severe heart failure. Mr Marshall (pictured right in hospital) was fitted with a pacemaker on October 25 last year. This failed just three weeks later and had to be replaced. Just as things seemed to be looking up, Mr Marshall's condition deteriorated in March this year and he was put on a waiting list for a heart transplant. With his condition being too severe to wait for a transplant, Mr Marshall, of Oxford, was fitted with an LVAD, or mechanical heart, on June 4.

Lindsay Collins, 38, of County Down, Northern Ireland, had the procedure in the house of an unlicensed beautician on Friday, September 28 last year as a birthday treat. By the Monday, the sales executive's top lip had swollen to three times its usual size and was black and blue (see right, the next morning). It later filled with pus. Ms Collins, a single mother to four, said the pain was so excruciating it was worse than childbirth, leaving her unable to eat, talk or sleep. She was eventually treated at hospital, where she claims she was told the beautician wrongly injected into an artery. It took months for Ms Collins lips to heal (see left, the swelling going down and infected sore healing). Nine months later, her lips are scarred, causing Ms Collins' self-esteem to plummet. Pictured inset before lip fillers with her son.

Samantha Rideout, 30 (left) from St John's, Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada, broke her right foot in September 2018 (top right). Despite multiple visits to the emergency room, it went undiagnosed until November 2018 by an orthopedic surgeon. He put her on antibiotics and tried to clear the infection in an operation, but told her the infection (bottom right) could return unless she amputated her leg. In March, the mother-of-three had her right leg amputated from her knee down.

Experts at University College London now believe when women hit the menopause, at the average age of 51, men see a similar decline in their sperm quality. British researchers tracked more than 4,200 men trying to have a baby through IVF. They found men aged 51 and older were 34 per cent less likely to conceive than those under 35. Although there are many ageing celebrity fathers, from Simon Cowell (right) to Mick Jagger (left), the evidence suggests sperm DNA becomes damaged with age.

Michael Truitt (pictured inset), of Livonia, Michigan, was helping his stepdad with some DIY work at home when his heart stopped. He can't remember falling to the ground, or even the pain. All he knows is he went from walking to suddenly gasping for air on a bed in Beaumont Hospital, surrounded by wide-eyed doctors holding defibrillator pads. It was later confirmed that a ladder he was carrying touched a wire, his heart stopped. Despite 20 minutes with no heartbeat, he suffered no brain damage. Pictured with Dr Angel Chandler, left, and clinical nurse Yasmeen Bachir, right.

Darina Shpengler (left) has never officially been diagnosed but is thought to have a rare condition called Nager syndrome. As soon as she was born, doctors reportedly recommended her mother Elena Shpengler, 47, (pictured right with the now six-year-old) 'abandon' her baby to become an orphan. Refusing to give up on her child, Mrs Shpengler and her husband Yury, 49, were even forced to leave the remote village they called home when their family cruelly rejected Darina. With Russian medics being unable to help, Darina is due to have life-changing surgery at Great Ormond Street Hospital today. The operation will be led by Professor David Dunaway (pictured inset with Darina), who is head of the hospital's craniofacial unit.

Patricia 'Tan Mom' Krentcil, 51 (left and right), collapsed on a street in Brandon, Florida, and was rushed to the hospital. She was diagnosed with pneumonia and doctors also found fluid in her lungs that needed to be drained. Krentcil's lungs were too weak because she is a life-long smoker and, because all the fluid could not be drained, she went into cardiac arrest. The mother-of-five was placed in a medically-induced coma, but has since emerged. Krentcil is recovering but is currently on 'heavy medication' and 'has lost between 10 and 20 pounds'.

Lucy Heyes, 19, from Liverpool, has praised a £6 cleansing bar containing charcoal and tea tree oil for improving her skin in just two weeks (pictured left before and right after). The student first suffered with acne at the age of 17 when she had a contraceptive implant fitted. During her studies, she noticed her skin flare up - just one month after receiving the implantation. The spots on her face were extremely sore and aggressive, and despite trying numerous creams and topical treatments, nothing seemed to work - until she found an unlikely solution in a Carbon Theory cleansing bar (inset).

Essence Blackhurst, 21, delivered her son, Eli (inset), in May via C-section, but she contracted a flesh-eating bacterial infection after the operation. She had to remain in the hospital for three weeks while doctors treated her with antibiotics and performed five surgeries to remove the tissue that had been destroyed by the infection that affects 0.18 percent of women who deliver by C-section.

McKenna 'Kenni' Shea Xydias, two (left and inset), began developing high fevers and a bloated belly earlier this year. Her pediatrician in Senoia, Georgia, initially dismissed her symptoms as gas. After developing a 103F fever, Kenni was taken to the hospital, where she was diagnosed with a rare ovarian yolk sac tumor. MRI and CT scans revealed tumors also across her abdomen and near her liver. Kenni had surgery to remove her right ovary and part of her intestine, and she began chemotherapy. On June 12, scans showed that Kenni is cancer-free and rang the hospital bell (right).

Pink gin is fast becoming the trendiest drink of the summer - but many Brits may be oblivious to the fact many of them are full of sugar. Some of the nation's favourite flavoured gins contain up to 15 teaspoons - or 90g - in a full bottle. For example, Whitley Neill's Handcrafted Rhubarb and Ginger Gin (second from right) contains 9.3g of sugar in every 100ml - the equivalent of two doubles. The NHS says adults have no more than 30g of free sugars each day, meaning two double gins can tally up to a third of the recommended amount. Gordon's Premium Pink Gin (left) contains almost 7g of sugar per 100ml. Warner Edwards Victoria's Rhubarb Gin (second from left) is also laden in sugar, serving up 9.2g in every 100ml. Beefeater's London Premium Pink Gin (right) is slightly lighter, but still contained more than a teaspoon (4.6g) of sugar per 100ml.

Rachel Molloy, 36, suffered from a ruptured splenic artery aneurysm - a rare complication of pregnancy that often leads to the death of both mother and baby. She and her husband Nick (pictured right on their wedding day) had driven her to the hospital when she began having abdominal pains, believing she was about to go into labour. Mr Molloy, 35, went from being an excited second-time father-to-be to a widower in fear of losing his newborn baby. Baby Isabelle was delivered by C-section at Wythenshawe Hospital, Manchester on April 24 (see inset). Mrs Molloy will never get to meet her baby because she died the next day. Pictured left with her first child, James.

John Crawford, (left, as a baby, and right, now) from Orlando, Florida, was rushed to the hospital at nine months old in March 2013 after being fussy and weak. He was diagnosed with transverse myelitis, an inflammation of a section of the spinal cord that often results in paralysis. Doctors told his parents that the condition was caused by the flu virus. The virus shut down John's respiratory system and he needed to be placed on life support for 20 days. John, now seven, recovered movement in his hands, arms and toes but was left paralyzed from the waist down.

One patient from Northamptonshire was sent to a private hospital in Glasgow, 170 miles away. Another from Kent was placed 150 miles away in Darlington. The health service spent a staggering £186million last year on sending these patients to private rehab facilities which, experts warn, are a 'breeding ground for abuse'. And some NHS trusts even spent their entire mental health budget on referring people to private care, among them Sandwell and West Birmingham Clinical Commissioning Group which sunk more than £20million into the private sector in 2017-18.

When Charley's condition first became apparent on the 13-week scan, California sweethearts Lexi and Joshuwa Royer were advised to consider abortion. But they heard about a new experiment being explored in Texas, operating on a fetus's spine while it is still in the womb, without opening the uterus. Charley's was the first case in the US ever reported. Even still, doctors thought he may not walk, because spina bifida cannot be cured, only alleviated. But now, doctors say his progress shows he will walk.

Jenna Ganahl (pictured), seven, was bitten by several ticks while at a Colorado summer camp. Her mother, Heidi (left) plucked them out but a tiny piece of one left Jenna temporarily paralyzed. Tick paralysis is rare, but occurs when a female tick carrying eggs attaches to a human and transfers a neurotoxin from its saliva to the host. Once it's removed entirely, the host will recover, as Jenna thankfully has.

Lochlan Timothy and Lex Anthony O'Malley were born four months early on July 18, 2017, in Washington. Doctors warned their parents the odds were against them, but they survived. Lex needed heart surgery once he reached 2lbs, and Lochlan suffered two brain bleeds. In all, the boys spent the first three months (and change) of their lives in NICU, surrounded by feeding tubes and machines to monitor them.

Tina Hines (right) suddenly dropped to the ground near her Phoenix, Arizona home when she went into cardiac arrest. After being resuscitated six times, she claimed she saw Jesus and the afterlife in a note that said 'It's real.' Between 10 and 20 percent of sudden cardiac arrest survivors have 'near death experiences.' Tina awoke after being 'dead' for 27 minutes and wrote 'it's real' in nearly illegible print (left,inset), stunning her family.

Jean Billam, 78, a retired nursery nurse from Sheffield, benefited from a new procedure to treat it, as she tells CAROL DAVIS. Graham Auger is a consultant ophthalmologist at Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust. Around half a million Britons have glaucoma, most of them over 40. When fluid pressure rises in the eye, as a result of an imbalance between how much is produced and how much drains away, it puts pressure on the optic nerve, gradually causing sight loss. It can run in families and get worse with age. Diabetes, which damages blood vessels in the eye, and ethnicity, due to genetic differences in the structure of the eye, can also raise the risk. Inset: Jean with her late husband Roy in 1985, around the time she first started treatment for glaucoma

Despite admitting to the extent of her eating problem, then 16-year-old Meg Smith's (left) GP told her she wasn't ill enough to warrant help. She now studies special effects and media make-up in Leeds. Tommy Kelly's (right) story graphically highlights the need for prompt treatment. Aged 17 and then playing football semi-professionally for Scotland's youth team, he started eating less and exercising more. The weight started dramatically dropping off - and he now realises he had developed anorexia. However, his GP told him that boys don't get eating disorders and that he couldn't possibly have one as he wasn't skinny enough. He blamed Tommy's health problems on the recent death of his mother and packed him off home with antidepressants. Within three years, the once-12st sportsman weighed less than 6st and, at the age of 20, suffered a heart attack. His low intake of food and water had caused his potassium levels to drop, which triggered an irregular heartbeat. Last September, NICE (the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence) published new guidance in response to a damning Parliamentary report on eating disorder services, stating that treatment should start within four weeks for children, and in a 'locally agreed timeframe' for adult patients. The previous month, NHS England revealed that even children with severe eating disorders were waiting three months or more before starting treatment sessions.

Youngsters in Muzaffarpur, in the north-eastern state of Bihar (see right inset), are succumbing to encephalitis - which occurs when the brain becomes inflamed. The 'completely curable' disease is said to have been triggered by dehydration and malnutrition, with some reports even linking it to lychee fruit. India's highest court has ordered an investigation into the central and state governments after a petition accused the 'machinery' of 'inaction'. An unnamed child is pictured on June 20 being treated for encephalitis at Kejriwal hospital in Muzaffarpur. Left inset shows an Indian woman mourning the loss of a child named Muskan Sahni, who died at the government-run Sri Krishna Medical College and Hospital in Muzaffarpur on June 19.

Oscar Saxelby-Lee (left), from Worcester, has been able to get some sense of normality in his life thanks to a robot which allows him to see and talk to his teachers and school-friends (inset) despite being in hospital having treatment for leukaemia. The AV1 'Ozzybot' robot (right) costs £300-per-month and is paid for by a charity helping children with cancer. His headteacher at Pitmaston Primary School, Sue Bladen, said: 'When Oscar took part in his first school registration this week since December saying "Good morning Mrs Keating" the joy, emotions and cheers from his friends, as you can imagine, were overwhelming.'

Kate Komleva (pictured left recently) was heading home from a night out in her native Yekaterinburg, Russia, in 2011 when a nearby pipe exploded. The now 28-year-old walked through the 'fog', which caused her to endure 'searing pain' and even left her thinking 'she was dying'. Ms Komleva went on to endure a 57-day stint in hospital (seen right). Over the next two years, the burns survivor underwent a total of 20 operations, where medics removed her toes and the dead skin on the soles of her feet. Her burnt feet are pictured inset.

Becki Van der Land, 35, and her husband Cees (pictured right, with their daughter, Ottilie) were overjoyed to learn that they were expecting both a son and a daughter earlier this year (see left, scans of the twins). But at the 12-week scan the couple, from Allendale, Northumberland, were told the girl twin was much smaller than her brother and showing signs of struggling. Tragically, her heart stopped beating five weeks later, and doctors have since discovered she had a genetic condition. As well as coping with the death of daughter, the devastating news also meant that Mrs Van der Land was at risk of losing the boy baby as well. But he is growing well, and the Mrs Van der Land is 'still looking forward to meeting both babies' in around four months, even though one will never come home.

EVE SIMMONS (left) recalls the precious moments she spent with her father in hospital while he was battling cancer, remembering how she fed him Jelly Tots and Fruit Pastilles. You'd think with the ongoing scandal of fatal listeria poisoning linked to sandwiches sold in NHS hospitals, there would be other things to worry about, she writes. But Professor Dame Theresa Marteau, a scientist from the University of Cambridge, has called for radical restrictions on vending machine 'junk' on wards. Pictured right: Eve, aged two, with her father Jeff before his long battle with cancer began.

Lynn Stevens (left) was diagnosed with bowel cancer. Doctors at a Worcestershire hospital advised chemotherapy. She died aged 66, poisoned by the drug meant to prolong her life. Like an estimated one in 20 people in the UK, Lynn's body did not produce a liver enzyme called dihydropyrimidine dehydrogenase, or DPD. Normally, DPD deficiency causes no ill effects. But for cancer patients, its absence renders both fluorouracil (also commonly known as 5FU) and capecitabine, the tablet form of the same drug, potentially lethal. Even for those who survive chemotherapy poisoning caused by DPD deficiency, the experience is horrific. Sussex estate agent Richard Bingham (right, with his wife Becky), 41, was diagnosed in 2016 with advanced bowel cancer which had already spread to his lungs.