A Scots mother-of-five has died from sepsis after being admitted to hospital with a “chest infection” – as her family pay tribute to the “life and soul of the party”.
Michaela Smith died at the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh on Sunday, January 5, following spending eighteen days in hospital after going in with a chest infection. She leaves behind her five children – Shannon-Lee, 23, Dylan, 21, Daniel, 17, Jay 15, and Gracie-May, 8 – as the devastated family say she had a “heart of gold” – but always “said it like it was”.
Shannon-Lee, who now lives in Bathgate, told Edinburgh Live: “Her body was breaking down. She was initially taken in for a chest infection, which led to endocarditis. She needed heart valve replacement, and they told us that wasn’t possible because of how weak her body was.
“A few days after that she got the surgery and came out of it, and it was successful. She also had clots in her heart, clots in her lungs, multi-organ failure and sepsis. She went through the ringer.”
Michaela’s family said she was “doing fine” in the days before her passing, and seemed to be making progress. Shannon-Lee continued: “She was awake, she squeezed my hand three times to say I love you. She wasn’t well, but she was progressing and doing a lot better. At 4.06am the next morning, I got a phone call to say that mum had haemorrhaged and was in cardiac arrest and I had to get there right away.
“At 4.11am she passed away. It would’ve been much easier for us to understand if it had happened at the start, because they told us she was going to pass away. Mum miraculously pulled through, and she was progressing, she was off the ventilator and onto a tracheotomy. We were so confused.”
The siblings are also mourning the loss of their great-grandmother, who suffered from dementia and passed away in October at the age of 98. Shannon-Lee told us: “She was my mum’s, mum’s, mum. Nana Peggy was an amazing woman. Very strong willed. She got Covid so many times and still got through it. She was a trooper.”
Speaking on how the family are coping, she continued: “We’re just distraught. We’re finding it hard to understand. It’s a lot for us to take, we never expected. Of course we knew she was very sick, but she was getting better.
“For her to die the next day was just crazy. She was comfortable though, they allowed me and my auntie Michelle to wash her body and get her dressed. We gave her some dignity and put some lip balm on her – she always hated not having anything on her face.
“She was crazy. She always brought the party wherever she went. She loved music. She was an upfront person. She’ll say it exactly how it is and if you didn’t like it she didn’t care. Loved her kids, loved her family.
“She was make-up orientated, mum would not leave the house without make up on. She was a glam queen. Mum had a heart of gold.”
Shannon-Lee and her siblings are now putting together Michaela’s funeral. With costs rising, they’re looking for help as they give her a ‘proper send off’.
They told us: “We’ve ordered mum a pink casket, because pink was her favourite colour. Pink everything. She’s getting a horse and carriage, white horses and white carriage. The horses will have pink on them.”
You can help Shannon-Lee and her family with Michaela’s funeral here.
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