Yorkshire mum dies after her heart stops while watching Instagram …

A loving Yorkshire mum who was “like a ray of sunshine” died tragically after her heart stopped at just 39 years old, leaving behind a devastated husband and son. Jodie Babiczuk-Handley passed away after suffering a cardiac arrest earlier this month on Friday, November 17. What followed was 12 agonising days in a coma and hooked up to a ventilator, until she died on Monday, November 27.

Husband Ian Handley, also 39, has opened up about the horrific night where he fought to save Jodie’s life, while their five-year-old son Felix lay asleep in his bed mere yards away. Ian said: “She was the best. It didn’t matter where she went, what position she was in or how long she’d met anyone, she just effortlessly brought light and happiness into a room.

It’s beyond words. “It wouldn’t matter how long you’d spend with her, she would have a positive impact on you. She was so positive, kind and warm.

She also didn’t follow traditions for the sake of it. She was free and happy, like a ray of sunshine.”

Felix, Ian and Jodie after the couple’s wedding, stading infront of Leeds Town Hall (Image: Ryan Learoyd, Shutter Go Click Photography)

Ian, who works as a journey manager at a bank, has recounted the traumatic moments leading up to Jodie’s untimely death. Days before her cardiac arrest, Jodie was under the belief she had a mere chest infection and was prescribed a treatment of antibiotics to deal with it.

The fateful Friday began just like any normal day, Jodie had been to works and returned to her home in East Ardsley, a village between Wakefield[2] and Leeds[3]. The young mum, who was originally from Louth in Lincolnshire, had been working as a sewing assistant for children’s clothing, after previously being a hairdresser for many years. Jodie and Ian put Felix to bed just like any normal night and then went to their own bedroom.

The couple lay in bed together, watching Instagram reels which Jodie had found funny. But then all of a sudden, Jodie’s started “feeling dizzy”. Ian initially thought Jodie just needed a break from the screen but then the “look on her face” made it clear that something much worse was happening.

Ian said: “Her face went red. It was getting really scary, some of the noises she was making. The fact she was unresponsive and fighting for her breath, it was all quite traumatic.”

Ian, Felix and Jodie (Image: Ryan Learoyd, Shutter Go Click Photography)

Ian rang 999 and was told to perform chest compressions while he waited for paramedics to arrive.

He then had to perform the compressions for eight agonising minutes. He also had to dart to the front door to make sure it was open for the emergency crew, as he was the only person at home, apart from Felix, and return to the compressions. After the hospital crews arrived, Ian was also very conscious that his son was asleep in the next room and he didn’t want him waking up to chaos that was unfolding at home.

So, all Ian could do was wait on the landing, to care for his son if he should happen to wake. Jodie was then rushed to Pinderfields Hospital where she was put on life support. Ian was told that she did not have a chest infection, and she had in fact been suffering with pneumonia.

A previous heart condition, resulting in surgery when she was a young girl, had made Jodie more vulnerable to health conditions. The pneumonia had put “pressure on her heart,” says Ian. Over the next 12 days, Ian kept thinking “Am I going to get Jodie back?” while thoughts of his partner, who he had been with for 10 years and married to for three years raced across his mind.

He says the hospital were up-front about how dire Jodie’s circumstance but that he still lived for those tiny glimmers of hope faint signs of improvement brought about.

Jodie with Felix at a climate protest (Image: Ian Handley)

While this was all happening, Ian made sure to shield Felix over what was going on, telling him his mum was “very poorly in hospital but was being looked after very well” and the boy’s routine was kept as normal as possible. “Felix made Jodie a get well soon card, which was just heartbreaking,” Ian added. Jodie passed away, surrounded by loving members of her family. Ian said he was tortured by thoughts over what more he could have done and the injustice of it all.

Ian said: “I thought I’d done everything right, like when she was having the cardiac arrest and I was able to help her. I thought I’d saved her life but I hadn’t. “There was an on ongoing feeling about how it was ‘unnatural’.

Someone at 39-years-old with a five-year-old son shouldn’t be going through this. It was really hard to take.”

Jodie, Felix and Ian had been married for three years (Image: Ryan Learoyd, Shutter Go Click Photography)

Ian said he’d cried so much over the 12 days that when it finally came to telling Felix the bad news, he felt drained of emotion. Ian says family from both sides were there to support them which Ian said really helped, with Jodie’s parents travelling from Lincolnshire in their motorhome to be with them.

Ian said: “I did tell him last night that mummy had died which was quite hard. That just invited more questions. I got a lot of support from a psychiatrist on site at the hospital and was given help and advice with lots of useful books.

“A five-year-old needs to be told very clearly, it’s like a new word for them. I’d cried a lot over the weeks so I was kind of ’emotioned-out’. So even though I wasn’t fighting back the tears, it was still so sad to see his reaction.”

Ian’s mate David Medley has launched a fundraiser to help Jodie’s family through this difficult time, it can be accessed here[4].

Get all the latest big and breaking Yorkshire news straight to your mobile via WhatsApp by clicking here[5].

References

1. ^ Huddersfield school ‘teaching British values’ is ‘uniting diverse area’ says Ofsted (www.examinerlive.co.uk)
2. ^ Wakefield (www.examinerlive.co.uk)
3. ^ Leeds (www.examinerlive.co.uk)
4. ^ here (www.gofundme.com)
5. ^ by clicking here (chat.whatsapp.com)