Nurse who had coronavirus hallucinations diagnosed with PTSD

A mental health nurse who nearly died of coronavirus has been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) since being discharged.

Sadie Hallett-Chambers, 32, suffered from severe delirium while ventilated at Devon's Derriford Hospital.

She hallucinated she was in a Spanish convent under attack by the IRA.

"I'm getting flashbacks most days, mainly of the delirium, my brain is really trying to figure out what was real and what was not," she said.

After Ms Hallett-Chambers, from Plymouth, had been on a ventilator for about a week doctors told her family she was unlikely to survive.

The mother-of-two works as a care co-ordinator for the Totnes community mental health team, helping patients with conditions such as multiple-personality disorder, anxiety and psychosis.

She said she began to feel ill around Mother's Day and was taken to hospital on 28 March after her lips turned blue. She was admitted to critical care and tested positive for Covid-19.

When 48 hours of oxygen treatment did not help, Ms Hallett-Chambers was placed on a ventilator.

She was taken off the machine after 10 days but put back on after her condition deteriorated.

This period between ventilations is when the most extreme delirium began.

Ms Hallett-Chambers said: "I was convinced I was insane and I thought I was in a Spanish convent, so I thought all of the nurses were nuns.

"I could also hear rioting outside, and I thought the convent was under attack from the IRA."

She said in her hallucination, she was convinced the nurses treating her were nuns telling her to "pass over and die".

"All I kept thinking was 'I'm not ready to die, I've got two children at home. I'm ready to fight this'," Ms Hallett-Chambers said.

The hallucinations were so lucid, she said, people often needed to remind her she had not been in Spain.

Ms Hallett-Chambers has been home for five weeks and said her physical recovery was going well, but she had been struggling with PTSD flashbacks.

However, she said her training had helped because she was "trying to do things I would tell other patients to do", including breathing exercises and therapy.

She said other people struggling with their recovery from coronavirus should not be "suffering alone" and advised them to ask their GP for help.

She emphasised mental health charity Mind, the NHS website and helplines such as Samaritans had resources to support people.

"When you're able to talk about what you're going through it does really help just to get it off your chest," she said.