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Woman, 42, Averted Death by 12 Hours After Bowel Rupture
21 Sep
Summary
- A 42-year-old woman's bowel ruptured due to asymptomatic diverticulitis.
- She was hospitalized, facing death within 12 hours of the rupture.
- Clare Large survived a life-threatening condition, a coma, and sepsis.
Clare Large, a 42-year-old mother of two, was rushed to Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Gateshead after experiencing extreme abdominal pain in October 2025. Doctors discovered that 50 pieces of fecal matter had caused a rupture in her bowel, a severe complication of diverticulitis, a condition she had been asymptomatic of.
She was informed she had been just 12 hours from death. Large underwent an emergency Hartmann's procedure and was placed in an induced coma. This was followed by a three-week coma where she battled sepsis, peritonitis, and double pneumonia, with doctors preparing her family for the worst.
Remarkably, Large awoke after a tracheostomy was performed. She spent six weeks in the hospital, needing to relearn to walk. The wound on her abdomen was initially the size of a man's head, but has since significantly reduced. She attributes her survival to skilled NHS staff and believes her previous long periods of inactivity due to broken legs may have contributed to her condition.
Large is now in recovery and faces further surgeries to reverse her stoma and repair an incisional hernia that requires her to use a wheelchair. Her overall recovery is expected to take two years from her initial surgery.
