Struggling with asthma can be terrifying, but Corowa’s Natalie Coall has experienced the worst of the disease.

Natalie tragically lost her 14-year-old daughter Savanna in 2020 to a fatal asthma attack before herself suffering an attack that had her placed in an induced coma for eight days.

On Easter Sunday this year, Natalie came scarily close to losing her life when, without any warning, she had a sudden asthma attack.

“It has been more than four years since I had an attack this bad and while I have never really had a trigger, I used to get some type of warning,” Natalie said.

“This one came out of nowhere; we were camping and I went up to my partner Nathan signalling that I couldn’t breathe.

Within five minutes, Nathan was carrying Natalie into Corowa Hospital, blue and unconscious.

Fortunately, a team from Albury Ambulance were on scene who helped keep her alive before she was incubated, placed in an induced coma and flown to the Royal Melbourne Hospital.

“Since Savanna passed, I have been diagnosed with Broken Heart Syndrome,” Natalie said.

“Doctors have told me that someone running a full marathon’s heart rate would be around 135.

“Mine was running up to 170 for most of the eight days, so at the full extreme.

“I spent eight days in a coma, but coming out of it was one of the most traumatic experiences I've ever had. I struggled a lot with that.

“I couldn't talk to say, what happened to me? Why am I here?

“I could not walk, could not move, had no speech, no movement at all and spent a further two weeks learning to walk and talk again.

“My body was fully fatigued.

“If the doctor wasn't at the hospital already and we had to wait any more time, I would have been brain dead because I went so long without any oxygen to my brain.

“I am just lucky to be alive. The doctors at Royal Melbourne ICU had told my family that I was a very interesting case and something they rarely see with asthmatics.

“I still feel weak. It's taken me a while to rebuild energy, but my voice has been the only setback.”

Millions of Australians are affected with the chronic lung condition, and more than 450 people die from asthma every year.

“Savanna suffered with asthma her whole life and passed due to a fatal attack,” Natalie said.

“Our younger daughter is on injections fortnightly and as I’ve got older, it has got worse.

“I'm on tablets, puffers and injections daily and weekly to try and stay alive, to be able to breathe.

“I also have an EpiPen so that if I do have another attack, it can give me a bit more time to get to a hospital.”

Though still recovering almost four months on, Natalie is grateful to numerous people to still be here today.

“My whole family did not leave my side. I have amazing support,” she said.

“And the Corowa Hospital; if it wasn't for them and the paramedics from Albury, I wouldn't be here - they pulled it together, and got me to Melbourne.

“The nurses and doctors at Royal Melbourne are just magicians; what they've done, what they can do and how they save people's lives is just unbelievable.”

While Natalie is slowly on the mend, it hasn’t been smooth sailing for the family since returning home to Corowa.

After returning home from Melbourne, Nathan went back to work the following week and on his way home on his motorbike, he was hit by a car.

He spent a week in hospital after surgery and with Natalie trying to help him, she said it’s like the blind leading the blind.

With three members of her own family suffering with the disease that Asthma Australia says directly impacts one in every nine Australians, Natalie said there definitely needed to be more of an awareness and/or education of what happens during an attack and what to do to help, as it was not common knowledge.

“Asthma itself is very common,” Natalie said.

“People don't realize how extreme it can be and the time afterwards to recover.

“I am still in a recovery stage and have only just gone back for a half day at work.”

Although Natalie’s latest asthma attack was traumatic for everyone close to her, a beautiful moment did come out of the ordeal.

“When we first got to the Corowa Hospital, they put me into the same room where we lost Savanna, so that was a big trigger for Nathan,” Natalie said.

“When I came out of the coma he said to me, ‘did you see Savanna?’, and I had.

“They say when you die you see the gates and all; there was nothing like that.

“It was literally me saying to Savanna, who was exactly how she was before she passed, ‘bub, I'll come with you’.

“And she said, ‘no Mum, I've got to go do this; I will see you later’, and that was it.

“That's probably the only ‘good’ thing that came out of the whole ordeal, that I know she's okay.”

The Little Red’s Annual Memorial Run, which is getting bigger each year, will be held on November 29 with Savanna’s parents in the organising stages of this year’s ride to raise money for Asthma Australia.

Read further details about the run in The Free Press closer to the event.

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Sunday, 9th July 2023

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