Jackie revealed she came within hours of death twice (Image: Daily Record)
presenter Jackie Bird has revealed the harrowing details of how she came within hours of death twice after suffering from a twisted bowel.
Speaking about her life-threatening ordeal, the 50-year-old Hogmanay Show host detailed to Scotsman back in 2012 how her family had been called to her bedside to say their final goodbyes.
“It has been quite a year,” Bird admitted at the time. “I certainly didn’t think bringing in 2012 on the Hogmanay Show that it might be my last.” She praised her then-teenage son, Jacob, and her neighbour Angus Macdonald, a surgeon, for saving her life.
“Jacob phoned NHS24 after three hours of me screaming in agony,” she recounted. Initially attributing her severe stomach pains to food poisoning, Bird delayed going to the hospital.
“Half an hour later, I was crawling about the floor on all fours,” she said. She was rushed to Hairmyres Hospital, where surgeons discovered her bowel had twisted, cutting off blood flow to parts of her intestines.
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surgeons discovered her bowel had twisted, cutting off blood flow (Image: Daily Record)
“Some of my intestines had died due to lack of blood flow. They had to remove 20cm of my large intestines and 10cm of my small. It was major surgery,” Bird explained, adding that doctors told her she had been just three hours from death.
Despite being discharged five days later, Bird’s ordeal wasn’t over. Within hours of returning home, her health deteriorated again. “I was hot and cold all over, and my body was bouncing two inches off the mattress with the shakes,” she said.
Her husband, Robin Weir, called their neighbor, Mr. Macdonald, who immediately drove her to Monklands Hospital. Surgeons discovered that the join in her intestines from the earlier surgery had split, causing poison to leak into her body.
“Doctors told me I was within hours of death again,” she revealed. The traumatic experience has left Bird shaken but determined to recover.
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Jackie was replaced by Edith Bowman on the Hogmanay show (Image: BBC Scotland)
“After the second surgery, I was very frightened. I realised I was not invincible and feared I would never get better. Hearing my family had been told to expect the worst was terrible,” she said.
Now recovering at home, Bird has lost a stone in weight and is regaining her strength with the help of an ex-Marine. Reflecting on her experience, she said it would make her a “more sensitive” interviewer.
“Having been so ill, I now know how terrified folk must be, and I will be asking very different questions in future. Former news anchor Jackie was succeeded by broadcaster Edith Bowman three years ago, but this New Year’s Eve, it’s sports reporter Amy Irons taking center stage for the iconic Hogmanay Show.