A horrific video of a woman whose heart and lungs stopped working shows the harsh reality of lupus, the incurable disease that affected Selena Gomez and Lady Gaga.
Melisa Woolery, 31, was diagnosed with the incurable disease after giving birth to her daughter Marlee prematurely in 2022.
She suffered two strokes and a heart attack before being placed in a medically induced coma, which led to her diagnosis.
Lupus, which causes the immune system to turn against the body and attack healthy organs and tissues, affects one in 10,000 people, and 90 percent of them are women.
London doctor Dr Sermed Mezher, who has 260,000 followers, shared the video on TikTok of Ms Woolery walking around the hospital hooked up to a machine keeping her lungs and heart working.
Melisa Woolery, 31, was diagnosed with the incurable disease after giving birth to her daughter Marlee prematurely in 2022. London doctor Dr Sermed Mezher, who has 260,000 followers, shared a TikTok video of Ms Woolery.
Ms Woolery suffered two strokes and a heart attack before she was placed in a medically induced coma and given a diagnosis.
Ms Woolery, who was filmed waiting for a heart, lung and kidney transplant, has already had surgery but is still in hospital.
The mother, who has created a Gofundme To receive financial support while he is unable to work, he explained that he developed a condition called ascites which causes abdominal swelling caused by fluid buildup.
In June 2022, his health worsened and the fluid in his body saturated his lungs, kidneys and heart.
She claims she suffered a heart attack, two strokes on the left side of her body and cardiac arrest, resulting in her being placed in a medically induced coma.
“Waking up from a coma was one of the best things that ever happened to me because I got a second chance at life and I’m beyond grateful,” she said on her gofundme page.
“Suffering the cardiac arrest has forced me to have to learn to walk again, learn to talk, learn to do all my normal daily activities again,” he added.
Lupus, which causes the immune system to turn against the body and attack healthy organs and tissues, affects one in 10,000 people, and 90 percent of them are women. The incurable disease also affected Selina Gomez
Selina Gomez has spoken out about her lupus diagnosis more than a decade ago. She was diagnosed with the autoimmune disease in 2013.
Dr. Mezher explained the devastating effects lupus can have on the body.
He said: “This condition can affect almost every organ in the body, as the immune system does not recognise the invading cells and begins to attack ourselves.”
Selina Gomez has been open about her lupus diagnosis for over a decade. She was diagnosed with the autoimmune disease in 2013 and later revealed her diagnosis to the public in her October 2015 cover story for Billboard.
In 2017, the actress shared that she had undergone a kidney transplant at age 24 due to organ damage related to lupus.
In 2022, she also released her documentary, Selena Gomez: My Mind & Me, in which she detailed her years-long journey with lupus and opened up about her mental health.
Singer Lady Gaga also revealed that she tested “almost positive” for the disease in 2010.
According to the Mayo ClinicLupus causes inflammation, affecting the joints, skin, kidneys, blood cells, brain, heart, and lungs.
It is still unknown exactly what triggers lupus, although a combination of genetic and environmental factors is thought to be involved.
Sunlight, stress, smoking, certain medications and viruses are known to aggravate symptoms.
The female sex hormone estrogen is also thought to play a role, so women of childbearing age are primarily affected.
Singer Lady Gaga also revealed that she tested “almost positive” for lupus in 2010
Symptoms of lupus include pleural effusions (fluid buildup in the lungs), heart and kidney problems, arthritis, and Raynaud’s phenomenon (when fingers turn white or blue in response to stress or cold). A butterfly-shaped rash on the face is also a key sign.
Lupus affects 50,000 people in the UK and more than five million worldwide.
There is no cure, but there are treatments that can help reduce symptoms.
However, sufferers often face a long road of up to seven years to diagnosis, as the wide range of symptoms makes it notoriously difficult to detect.
Patients typically report fatigue, fever, joint pain including stiffness and swelling, skin lesions, shortness of breath, and chest pain.
Dry eyes, headaches, confusion and memory loss, and fingers that turn white or blue in the cold or when someone is stressed may also occur.
The symptoms are similar to those of many other diseases, which means it can be difficult for doctors to identify lupus as the cause.
For this reason, some experts have dubbed this disease “the great masked disease.”
A telltale sign is a facial rash that looks like a butterfly on both cheeks, but this does not occur in all cases.
Lupus symptoms vary in severity and last for different lengths of time. Most patients have mild symptoms that flare up from time to time and develop into more severe, temporary episodes.
Dr Mezher said: “It is known as the great imitator because it has very non-specific symptoms such as brain fog, rashes and fatigue.”
He added: “When detected early, 85 to 90 percent of patients can live a normal life with medications that suppress the immune system.”
Some people are born predisposed to lupus, which can be affected by infections, certain medications, or sunlight.
Doctors recommend seeing a doctor if you have an unexplained rash or persistent fever, pain or fatigue.
Six out of ten people with lupus will have kidney complications, including lupus nephritis, which occurs when lupus autoantibodies attack the parts of the kidneys that filter waste.
This can inflame the kidneys and cause them to not function properly or even fail.