A horrifying video of a woman whose heart and lungs stopped working shows the stark reality of lupus, the incurable disease that hit Selena Gomez and Lady Gaga.
Melisa Woolery, 31, was diagnosed with the incurable condition after giving birth to her daughter Marlee prematurely in 2022.
She suffered two strokes and a heart attack before she was put into a medically induced coma, leading to her diagnosis.
Lupus, which causes the immune system to turn on the body, attacking health organs and tissues, affects one in 10,000 people, with 90 per cent of them women.
London-based doctor Dr Sermed Mezher, who has 260K followers, shared the video on TikTok of Ms Woolery walking though hospital hooked up to a machine that is keeping her lungs and heart functioning.
Ms Woolery, who was videoed while awaiting a heart, lung and kidney transplant, has since had her operation but is still in hospital.
The mother, who has set up a gofundme for financial support while she is unable to work, explained she developed a condition called ascites which causes abdominal swelling caused by accumulation of fluid.
In June 2022, her health took a turn for the worse, and the fluid in her body saturated her lungs, kidneys and heart.
She claims she suffered a heart attack, two strokes to the left side of her body and cardiac arrest which all caused her to be put into a medically induced coma.
‘Waking up from the coma was one of the best things that has happened to me because I got a second chance at life which I am beyond grateful for,’ she said on her gofundme page.
‘Suffering from the Cardiac Arrest has caused me to have to learn how to walk again, learn how to talk, learn how to do all of my normal daily activities all over again,’ she added.
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 your immune system fails to recognise invading cells from your own and begins attacking ourselves.’
Selina Gomez opened up about her lupus diagnosis over a decade ago. She was diagnosed with the autoimmune disease in 2013 and later revealed her diagnosis to the public in her October 2015 cover story with Billboard.
In 2017, the actress shared that she had undergone a kidney transplant at just 24 due to lupus-related organ damage.
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 she tested ‘borderline positive’ for for the condition in 2010.
According to the Mayo Clinic, the lupus causes inflammation, affecting joints, skin, kidneys, blood cells, brain, heart and lungs.
What exactly triggers lupus is still unknown although it is believed a combination of genetics and environmental factors are at play.
Sunlight, stress, smoking, certain medicines and viruses are knows to exacerbate symptoms.
The female sex hormone oestrogen is also believed to have a role — which is why women of childbearing age are primarily affected.
Lupus affects 50,000 people in the UK and more than five million worldwide.
There is no cure, but treatments that can help reduce symptoms are available.
However suffers often face a long road to diagnosis of up to seven years, as the broad-ranging symptoms make it notoriously difficult to spot.
Fatigue, fever, joint pain such as stiffness and swelling, skin lesions, shortness of breath and chest pain are all commonly reported by sufferers.
Dry eyes, headaches, confusion and memory loss, and fingers turning white or blue in the cold or when someone is stressed can also occur.
The signs are similar to many other illnesses, which means it can be tricky for medics to pinpoint lupus as the cause.
Some experts have dubbed the condition the ‘great masquerader’ for this reason.
One telltale sign is a facial rash that looks like a butterfly across both cheeks, but this doesn’t occur in all cases.
Lupus symptoms vary in severity and last for different amounts of time. Most sufferers have mild symptoms that flare up into more temporary severe episodes from time to time.
Dr Mezher said: ‘It’s known as the great mimicker because it has very nonspecific symptoms like brain fog, rashes and fatigue.’
He added: ‘When it is caught early 85 to 90 per cent of patients can live a normal lifespan on medications that suppress the immune system.’
Some people are born predisposed to lupus, which infections, certain medications or sunlight could bring on.
Medics recommends seeing a doctor if you have an unexplained rash or a fever, aching or fatigue that persists.
Six in 10 people with lupus will have kidney complications, including lupus nephritis, which happens when lupus autoantibodies attack the parts of the kidneys that filter out waste.
This can inflame the kidneys and cause them not to work properly and even fail.
