• September 14, 2022

Keralite nurse in London fighting for her life seeks your prayers for her to come back to life

By A Staff Reporter

LONDON Sept 12: Ritty Raju came to the UK in February 2020 with dreams like every immigrant from her hometown in Kerala. She started working as a Registered Nurse at Royal Free Hospital in London and moved up higher to become a Renal Research Nurse. Later the same year, Amit, her husband, joined her in the United Kingdom, and they were looking forward to building a new life in this country.

For them, everything went well until Ritty developed a throbbing headache and walked into the Accident and Emergency department in Hillingdon Hospital, London, on 31st August 2022. Later that day, she was admitted with the suspicion of Meningitis, a severe disease affecting the coverings of the brain.

The hospital followed usual treatment protocols, but on 06th September 2022, her medical condition started deteriorating. All possible investigations were performed to reach a diagnosis, but the medical team could not conclude.

On 7th September 2022, Ritty developed violent seizures, and her consciousness level dropped. Not knowing what was causing this rapid deterioration in her condition, the medical team put her on more antibiotics, but that proved to be of little effect. On 8th September 2022, she had to be moved to the Intensive care unit in Hillingdon Hospital.

By afternoon she had to be Intubated and connected to a ventilator with additional support to control her blood pressure. The medical team, alarmed by the rapid pace of her deterioration, referred her to Charring Cross Hospital in London for specialist Neurological treatment and support. She was transferred to Charring Cross hospital Critical Care Unit on 09th September 2022. She underwent further investigations, including an MRI, to ascertain the cause of her condition. She developed a devastating cardiac arrest in the hospital but was brought back to life by the medical team’s efforts. MRI revealed that she has edema from her brain up to the spinal cord, which is life-threatening.

Ritty remains intubated with full ventilator support and is in the coma stage, a deep state of prolonged unconsciousness. The medical team has minimal hopes of ever returning to life as she is in a very advanced stage of encephalitis (an infection affecting the brain) on her brain stem and cerebellum and is not responding to countless antibiotics and other medications. Nevertheless, her church continues to pray for her day and night for a miracle from God.

What happened to Ritty at the young age of 33 has devastated Amit, their families and all of us. She had no previous medical conditions and is the only child of her parents. If she returns to everyday life, she could be left with devastating lifelong complications, including paralysis.

Ritty was the only person working and the primary visa holder. Whichever way it turns out to be, Amit may have to go back home with or without Ritty as she is on a work visa, and it might become invalid if she doesn’t work, which puts the young family under tremendous financial pressure. The medical team has asked to bring the Rittys family from Kerala, India, as soon as possible to the UK so they can see her daughter again.

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