The 55-year-old was diagnosed with “severe pneumonia, acute kidney injury and sepsis” following a week of symptoms including sweating, a “raging” temperature and chest pain.
Opening up about the ordeal in her latest Substack newsletter, the ITV presenter also discovered she had lost “80% capacity” in one of her lungs to “severe pneumonia and infection”.
Andrea explained: “In December I was one of thousands who came down with ‘flu.
“Like lots of people, I sucked it up, thinking it would pass in a week or so.”
But after a week of “sweating and shivering, with a raging temperature and chills”, and “pain in my chest and back”, Andrea “collapsed” in her bathroom and “lay there for an hour” before she was found by her husband.
She added: “We rang the GP who told us to call 999 immediately.
“The ambulance team were amazing. My blood pressure was so low I couldn’t stand, and I was in a lot of pain. To be honest, I was barely aware of what was happening, other than trying to be helpful. Our bedroom is in the loft, up a steep, narrow flight of stairs, which meant the stretcher couldn’t turn, so getting me out was challenging. We eventually got out the house, and I can now say with confidence that travelling in the back of an ambulance isn’t as much fun as you think it would be.
“I can’t remember much about A&E other than it was thorough. Questions, scans, lots of needles, and possibly the most painful insertion of a catheter ever experienced.
“Then my X-ray and CT scans came back. I had severe pneumonia, Acute Kidney Injury and sepsis. Things happened quickly; drips, super-strong antibiotics via IV and orally, and I was transferred to the Emergency Assessment Ward.”
Andrea McLean says ‘life is still not back to normal’
Andrea said she spent “two days and nights there [in the hospital] in almost constant pain, with sensory overload with the screams”.
But the former weather presenter for GMTV revealed she was eventually able to go home to sleep but had to return to hospital in the day for treatment.
Andrea shared: “I could go home to sleep, but I had to come back every day for my drips, for the next week, so that I finished the strong course of antibiotics and continued with my rehydration. I also had to have my blood tested every day, and more scans, so I would be in hospital for hours at a time, BUT I could go home to sleep.”
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The Glasgow-born star continued: “It’s now February, and I’m still not well enough to handle normal stuff like getting up and rushing out the door to do the jobs I’d been booked to do, because every part of that process would end with me falling down, or at the very least sitting on a tube station floor feeling very unwell and embarrassed at the stares. I’m still having ‘funny turns’ while out for a walk, or attempting the mildest of exercise.
“It means I haven’t really started 2025 yet.”
Andrea commented: “Life stopped for a while, but that’s all. I’m not better yet, but I will be, and I can’t make that happen any faster than the time it will take.”
