CHIPPENHAM patient Helen Axam, who came within inches of death after suffering a rare internal haemorrhage, has thanked Bath's Royal United Hospital for saving her life.

At the same time, she has expressed anger at the hospital's zero star rating and at the criticism levelled at it.

Mrs Axam, 37, of Pewsham, was battling for her life just weeks ago after a mysterious pain in her abdomen spiralled her into an agonising nightmare as doctors struggled to make a diagnosis.

"Thank you is such a totally inadequate word to say how I feel about the consultants, doctors, nurses and all the staff in the hospital who saved my life," she said.

Mrs Axam, who works as a management accountant with Fowlers Motorcycles in Bristol, first felt unwell on June 30. She was suffering pain in her abdomen when she woke up, but headed into work.

By 2.30pm, she felt so ill she headed home. A doctor at the Lodge surgery in Pewsham diagnosed a urinary infection and prescribed antibiotics.

But the pain grew worse, and Mrs Axam could not eat or drink and suffered a sleepless night. Early the next morning, she and her husband John called an ambulance.

As it happened, Mr Axam, 44, had been due to have an operation in Bristol on the Monday to have a tumour removed from his salivary gland. The operation had been cancelled at the last minute but the couple's bags were already packed and ready to go when the ambulance arrived to take Mrs Axam to hospital.

She was rushed to the accident and emergency department at the RUH and dosed with morphine to help her deal with the terrible pain.

Throughout the day, medical staff struggled to work out what was wrong.

They discovered a dark mass on her uterus, caused by an internal haemorrhage, and struggled to give Mrs Axam blood transfusions to make sure she could survive an operation. Mrs Axam's blood was thin and failing to clot due to the drug Warfarin, which Mrs Axam had been taking since suffering two blood clots in her leg in 1996.

At that point, as doctors struggled frantically to give her transfusions, Mrs Axam almost died.

"There was no tunnel or white light for me," she said. "I found myself in a very calm place, all greys, with fog pouring over the edge of a chasm.

"All I had to do was step off and that would have been it. I was in so much pain I just wanted it to stop. I think it was my husband who brought me back. He was holding onto my hand. I only had ten per cent of my lungs working and I was fighting for breath."

She said her husband was shouting at her not to give up and not to die, imploring her to keep on fighting for life.

At 7.45pm doctors decided she was well enough for an operation. Two hours later, it was revealed that an ovarian cyst had burst, causing the haemorrhage, and the blood had not clotted because of her Warfarin treatment.

After the operation, Mrs Axam spent six hours on a ventilator. She returned home on July 9.

Bath's RUH has received a zero rating in the Government's performance league for two years running, mainly because of huge debts and long trolley waits. But Mrs Axam said she was tired of the criticism. "The staff were fantastic. The care they gave me was incredible," she said.

Mr Axam has bought his wife a diamond ring to celebrate her recovery.

Do you have experiences, good or bad, of Bath RUH that you'd like to share with the Gazette? E-mail jmoore@newswilts.co.uk