‘I found my husband stone cold in bed and thought he was dead’

A diabetic father stopped breathing and his wife feared he had died after discovering him “stone cold and rock hard” in bed – after his insulin pump malfunctioned while he slept. Adrian Brooking, 55, had been managing type one diabetes since receiving his diagnosis as a teenager in 1984.

Six years ago he transitioned from manually injecting insulin to using an Omnipod 5 – a glucose monitor linked to an insulin pump which automatically administers insulin as required. The device had “been brilliant” without any problems – until the early hours of April 30, when his wife Julie Brooking, 49, awoke to discover him unconscious in bed, entirely cold and “rock hard”.

An ambulance was summoned as distressed Julie and their son Oliver, 28, tried to resuscitate Adrian. He was taken urgently to hospital, where it emerged that his glucose monitor and insulin pump system had malfunctioned and delivered a substantial quantity of insulin when his blood sugar was already dangerously low.

A normal range for his blood sugar sits between 4mmol/L and 7mmol/L – but his plummeted to merely 0.8mmol/L – which is “not compatible with life”, Adrian said. Fortunately, Julie woke up that night just in time – with doctors later informing the family, from Clifton, Nottingham, that Adrian was “lucky to be alive” when he regained consciousness in resuscitation.

Julie, Adrian’s full-time carer, who spoke to Sell Us Your Story, said: “Luckily enough, I woke up when I did because I needed the loo. “When I first saw him, he was in a weird position and I joked ‘what position are you in now, you daft bugger?’

“Then I realised something wasn’t right. I shook him and he was stone cold.

“I thought I’d lost him, I thought he was already gone. It’ll take months for his body to heal and get back to normal, but I’m grateful he is alive.”

Adrian added: “I don’t remember hardly anything that happened, just glimpses. It was worse for my wife and son, something life-changing that they will never forget.

“The doctors told me: ‘you’re the luckiest man in here, you shouldn’t be alive’. If it wasn’t for my wife, son and the paramedics, I wouldn’t be here now.”

Throughout his adult life, Adrian had battled to keep his diabetes under control — even suffering two haemorrhages behind his eyes more than 20 years ago — yet had experienced no further complications since beginning his Omnipod 5 treatment. He reported feeling perfectly well before retiring to bed that evening, having made the journey to Lincoln earlier that day for a choir rehearsal. During the night, however, the monitor malfunctioned, causing him to lose consciousness.

Julie said: “I shook him and he was stone cold. There was no response and he was rock hard.

“I knew then that it wasn’t good. I thought he was already gone.

“I ran to my son’s room and we dialled 999, but we couldn’t even move him. He was solid, like getting a piece of meat out of the freezer.”

The 999 call handler urged Julie and Oliver to attempt to lower Adrian to the floor in order to perform chest compressions after they could detect no heartbeat. Despite struggling to move him, Oliver managed to employ a ‘bear hug’ technique — which caused Adrian to release a gasp of air, rousing him back to semi-consciousness. Paramedics arrived shortly afterwards, administering glucose at the scene before he was rushed to Queen’s Medical Centre for emergency treatment.

Adrian said: “All I remember was seeing three faces above me and knowing I was in a situation I shouldn’t be in. They were the faces of my wife, son and one of the paramedics. Then I saw a metal lamp, which must have been in the back of the ambulance, and the feeling of going up a ramp, then I woke in resus.”

He received glucose and insulin to stabilise his blood sugar levels, while his overall condition was closely monitored. A saline drip was also administered due to severe dehydration, alongside antibiotics to reduce the risk of sepsis.

Two days later, Adrian was discharged to recuperate at home, and two months on he continues his recovery. He is now on tablets and blood thinners following the episode, which left him with atrial fibrillation, an irregular heart rhythm.

The pump is currently under investigation by its manufacturer, though the cause of the malfunction remains unexplained. Adrian is also hoping to be reunited with the paramedics who helped save his life.

He said: “Because I wasn’t really conscious, it’s difficult to understand what people are talking about. It was like an out-of-body experience. But I have a lot to be thankful for.”

Julie added: “Now I naturally wake up at 3am and roll over to check he is okay. You have to move on with life, but I would never want to go through something like that again.”

A spokesperson from Insulet, the manufacturer of Omnipod 5, said: “We are deeply concerned to hear about Mr Brooking’s experience and are grateful he received urgent medical help. We understand how much people rely on Omnipod every day to help manage their diabetes and we take any report of an adverse event extremely seriously.

“Our Customer Care team has been in contact with Mr Brooking and we are actively reviewing the report through our established post-market monitoring processes. Patient safety and product quality remain our highest priorities. We will share the results of the report with Mr Brooking when our review concludes and take appropriate action based on its findings.”