Louise Thompson has paid tribute to the two nurses who "she adored very much" after they helped her recover from childbirth complications on the day that nurses went on strike.
Nurses across England and Wales were on strike on Thursday (December 15), marking the first time the Royal College of Nursing has ever staged a strike in its 106 year history. Tens of thousands of nursing staff walked out after being offered a 4.75% pay rise, which is well below inflation.
The former Made in Chelsea star, 32, and her fiancé Ryan Libbey welcomed their son Leo in November last year but she suffered severe complications which lead to doctors working "through the night" to save her.
She revealed that the pair were "dancing with death" due to the complications, which confined her to a wheelchair while she spent more than a month in hospital after the birth of her first child.
The reality TV personality wrote a lengthy statement on Instagram to her 1.4 million followers after being asked by several people about whether she would speak up about the nurses strike.
Louise shared a photo of herself lying in a hospital bed with tubes coming out of her nose, before heaping praise on two nurses who helped her make a full recovery.
She wrote: "A few people messaged me asking whether I was going to speak up about the nurse strike today.
"To be honest I have very mixed feelings towards our healthcare system as a whole. I have some very positive things to say and some very negative things (that I have and I will continue to keep to myself) …
"I decided to take a look back at some of the pictures of my time spent in hospital in November/December last year and they make me feel sick. It was pure darkness.
"HOWEVER, there were two ladies who came to my rescue who I adored very much. They were my shining light, my beacon of hope and they made a MASSIVE difference to my experience.
"They were nurses that I met when I moved down into the high dependency unit. They looked after me well, they kept me in the loop, tried to give me as much information as possible and they even had to do some gritty things that they’d never done before, like unpick my infected staples that had grown into my skin (I was quite shocked that I was the Guinea pig and that these things were so casual).
"Also the fact that they were expected to just pull tubes and drains out of my neck and body like it was no big deal. What champs."
She continued to explain how the two nurses were by her side during an "a very intense flash back/trip out episode" after giving birth.
Louise concluded: "They rolled my body onto one side and changed my bedsheets from underneath my heavy naked body when I couldn’t move. They drugged me up. They helped me go to the loo.
"They put cream on my bedsores (I can’t believe these are actually a thing). They changed sweat ridden sheets multiple times a day. They fed me, shaved me, cleaned me. It was pretty grim. And yet they did it with such grace and dignity."
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