I spent weeks in a coma but now I am training to become a doctor
A student who spent three weeks in an induced coma after contracting pneumonia and sepsis is now training to become a doctor.
Eshan Bilal, 18, is studying Medicine at the University of St Andrews, just two and a half years after becoming seriously ill.
In March 2022, he was admitted to the Royal Blackburn Hospital after contracting pneumonia, but then transferred to the high dependency unit at Manchester Children's Hospital.
When his condition deteriorated further, he was moved to the intensive care unit where he was diagnosed with acute respiratory distress syndrome and sepsis.
He said: “All my organs were inflamed, both of my lungs had collapsed, veins had collapsed.”
He was placed in an induced coma for three weeks and spent a total of two months in hospital, during which he had to learn how to walk again.
Eshan has always wanted to be a doctor and believes he now has a better understanding of patients.
He hopes to become a paediatric consultant and the student support scholarship means he can continue his voluntary work in the community.
He added: "I know exactly how it feels to be sat in the bed, I know exactly how it feels not be able to walk, eat or to even breath for yourself. And not even be able to speak, because I was mute for a few weeks.
He said: "My worries coming to St Andrews were that because of the majorly expensive lifestyle, the pressure from the studies of medicine and financial pressures, it will force me to get a part time job.”
He has now been awarded financial support from a fund set up by a Burnley businessman Edward Stocks Massey who died in 1909 and left £135,000 in his will – the equivalent of more than £20million in today's money – which is to be used to support the arts and education in Burnley.
The Edward Stocks Massey Bequest was established in 1910 and continues to award annual grants to promote science, learning, music and theatre in Burnley, along with up to three educational bursaries for students entering tertiary education.
UCLan student Daniella Taylor (pictured in the video), spent a month fighting for her life in a coma after contracting Covid-19.
The 29-year-old was placed on a ventilator and was in a medically-induced coma after suffering severe complications from the virus, including sepsis.
She had enrolled at the University of Central Lancashire just three weeks before she became ill and had to pause her studies for a year to recover.
She went on to graduate with a first class degree in occupational therapy - even though she says there was 'many times' where she doubted herself.