After a mum-of-four was diagnosed with meningitis, her family had come to terms with the worst. Janet Gunningham, from Bristol, soon suffered a stroke from her illness, which damaged her brain and spinal cord.
Doctors from Bristol’s Frenchay Hospital informed her husband Alan and the rest of her family that there was no hope for her, and they would switch off her life support machine.
The family posted pictures online of Janet on her deathbed. One of them included an image of Alan holding up a phone to play messages to his wife from friends who wanted to say goodbye.
Janet’s son Chris recalls his final words to his mum before he left the hospital.
"You’re a Gunningham – we don’t take things lying down, you’re not going anywhere," he said, according to The Metro.
“My brother said directly into her ear: ‘If you are still in there and you can hear me, then you make sure you open your eyes and fight for our dad.' Then Sunday came, and the miracle happened – Mum had flickered her eyes, and the new chapter had begun.”
However, Janet made a miraculous recovery and started breathing naturally by herself.
The 61-year-old decided to go public with her story after she was told she may have to move to a care home, as she couldn’t afford a wheelchair and to make her house accessible to her needs.
The Gunningham family have put up a Go Fund Me campaign to raise enough money for a downstairs bedroom and bathroom.
They recorded a video in hospital with Janet, in which she says: ‘Please don’t let me go in a home, I need my family. I have helped people all my life, and always think about others first, which is how I got here today. If I could ask for anything, it would be for your generosity to help me go home.
“I don’t know how much it will cost, and I don’t know how much caring for her in a nursing home will cost, but it seems obvious to me it’ll be cheaper in the long run to adapt her home and let her come home where her family can look after her,” her husband Alan told the Bristol Post.
“The doctors have written letters saying that she needs to come home, that moving her to an unfamiliar environment will be no good for her. We just need the council to see that it’s the best thing to do.”
