Bonnie Tyler had to be ‘resuscitated after going into cardiac arrest’ when doctors tried to bring her out of an induced coma at an Algarve hospital.
The medical emergency led to the worsening of the singer’s health condition late last week following life-saving surgery for a burst appendix, respected Portuguese daily Correio da Manha has reported.
The Welsh singer, 74, will remain in an induced coma in an intensive care unit at Faro Hospital until doctors manage to control the ‘serious infection’ she is suffering, caused by a perforated intestine, the paper said.
Her long-term friend Liberto Mealha said overnight, doctors are ‘positive’ she can make a full recovery despite the ongoing uncertainty about how things will evolve.
More details have emerged of Bonnie’s health woes, which are said to have led to her emergency bowel surgery and the removal of her appendix.
Mr Mealha, who first met The Total Eclipse of the Heart singer when he opened a well-known Albufeira nightclub in the Eighties near the artist’s holiday home, said last week: ‘She started feeling unwell during a concert in London and went to a doctor for tests, but they didn’t detect anything there.
‘She decided to travel to the Algarve, where she began to feel severe abdominal pain.
‘Two days later, she went to a private hospital, which urgently moved her to the hospital in Faro because her appendix had burst and she needed emergency surgery.’
Overnight, it was reported that Ms Tyler, believed to have first started feeling unwell around a month ago, had been bedridden for two days at her Algarve home before her worried husband, Robert Sullivan, took her to the private hospital she was seen at before being transferred to Faro.
A spokesman for the singer said late last Thursday she had been put in a coma to ‘aid her recovery’ after reports she had suffered a burst appendix.
A day earlier, when her health woes first emerged, the spokesman had said: ‘We are very sorry to announce that Bonnie has been admitted to hospital in Faro, Portugal, where she has a home, for emergency intestinal surgery.
‘The surgery went well, and she is now recuperating.
‘We know that all of her family, friends and fans will be concerned about this news and will be wishing her well for a full and swift recovery.’
Ms Tyler, who has had numerous hits in her lengthy career and competed at the Eurovision Song Contest representing the UK in 2013, is believed to have been rushed to the hospital on April 30.
She was said to have been ‘stable’ in an intermediate care unit at Faro Hospital before an apparent worsening of her health led to her being moved to intensive care.
Sources say she had been maintaining her professional activity in the run-up to being taken to the hospital, despite complaining of persistent pain for several weeks.
Reports that she required resuscitation have not yet been addressed by her representatives.
A medical emergency known as cardiac arrest occurs when the heart abruptly and unexpectedly stops pumping blood, stopping its beating and interfering with the body’s and brain’s ability to get oxygen.
It causes instant unconsciousness and collapse. Prompt action involving starting CPR and using a defibrillator, where available, is essential to prevent death.
An appendix rupture is a serious medical emergency that calls for quick surgery and medications to avoid deadly infections.
When an infected appendix bursts, it leaves a hole that allows germs and faeces to enter the abdominal cavity.
Mr Mealha, whose daughter is Bonnie’s goddaughter, said last week the singer’s husband was spending his days by her hospital bedside and only leaving to sleep at home at nighttime.
He added: ‘He’s very grateful to the doctors and nurses at the Faro hospital and believes that if Bonnie had stayed in the United Kingdom, she would no longer be here.’
On social media, well-wishers have shown their support.
Sara Hadfield wrote: ‘My husband spent 10 days eight years ago in an induced coma in the ICU in Faro Hospital.
‘They cared for him very well. I hope they do the same for Bonnie.’
Jenny Edwards added: ‘Come on, Bonnie girl. Us Welshies don’t give up. Here is to a full recovery.’
And Portuguese national Maria Joao Raposo Fonseca said: ‘Speedy recovery for Bonnie.
‘She is such a lovely lady. I lived close to her in Albufeira and used to see her all the time at my hairdresser’s salon, doing her tanning and then driving her little red convertible.’
So, Bonnie went to the doctors in London, but they missed appendicitis; our NHS health system is apparently the best in the world. I guess it’s so easy for doctors to overlook, particularly when our basic healthcare is rationed this much.
It’s also easy to detect, by doing a physical examination, and if still not certain, laboratory testing and imaging (CT scan and ultrasound), but of course, that commands money, so it’s more affordable overall to ignore patients who exhibit the early symptoms, leaving it until the Appendicitis becomes critical. This means more patients will die, but hey, don’t worry about that if it saves the system money.
The overall death rate from non-traumatic medical comas is significant, although the outcome differs greatly depending on why the coma occurred, how long it lasted, and the patient’s baseline health.
A mortality rate of 63 per cent and only 10 per cent “good recovery” is consistent with several large cohort studies of medically induced or medically caused comas due to severe infection, such as sepsis, meningitis, encephalitis, metabolic crises, hypoxic injury, multi-organ failure, prolonged ICU sedation, and stroke or intracranial haemorrhage (non-traumatic).
These groups are particularly heterogeneous, and numerous patients in those datasets were already critically ill before the coma. In other words:
The coma isn’t the cause of the poor outcome — the underlying illness is.
There are a few factors that dramatically shift the odds.
There are a few factors that dramatically shift the odds, and some causes have a far better outcome than others, such as drug-induced or sedation-related comas, which are usually reversible. With metabolic comas, such as diabetic or hepatic, there is usually a good recovery if rectified quickly.
Then there is infectious encephalitis, this is variable, but a patient can recover well with rapid treatment. Also, hypoxic brain injury has a much poorer prognosis.
Shorter comas (hours-days) have a far better outcome than lengthy ones (weeks).
Younger, healthier patients recuperate disproportionately better, and early antibiotics, antivirals, seizure control, ventilation, and neuro-monitoring all matter.
So, why is ‘good recovery’ only in the 10 per cent in numerous studies? Well, most studies in the Glasgow Outcome Scale were ‘good recovery’, which means independent living, returning to work or normal activities, and minimal cognitive impairment, but many survivors fell into this category where there was moderate disability, meaning needing some support, along with severe disability, meaning dependent but conscious, so the 10 per cent figure doesn’t mean only 10 per cent wake up, it means only 10 per cent return to near-normal functioning.
A tiny percentage of patients recover far better than the average indicates, and recovery is neither linear, predictable, nor uniformly distributed.
THE MONTHLY MOSQUITO 