Credit: Kennedy News & Media
Mom Suffers Medical Emergency That Turns Breast Milk Green
A mom has issued a warning to others after suffering a medical emergency that turned her breast milk green.
Tia Doyle had always considered herself the picture of good health. At 31, the mom of two was active, busy, and thriving in her role as a director of a family pub company.
Living in Torquay, Devon, her life revolved around work, family, and caring for her young children—including her three-month-old baby, whom she was breastfeeding at the time.
“I had a clean bill of health,” Tia said. “I’d never been allergic or intolerant to anything.”
There had been no warning signs, no long-standing medical concerns, and no reason to believe that anything serious was wrong. But in early 2022, something shifted—quietly at first, then with terrifying speed.
A strange illness with no clear cause
The first hint that something wasn’t right came a week before her near-fatal episode.
“The week before [going into anaphylaxis] I had started to feel really unwell with sickness and diarrhoea,” Tia recalled. “So I rang 111, and when they called me back a few hours later, I felt fine again.”
At the time, the symptoms seemed fleeting, easy to dismiss as a mild bug or something she had eaten.
“They thought I’d maybe had an allergic reaction to something,” she said.
But just days later, the situation escalated dramatically.
“I knew something really bad was happening”
Tia went to bed as normal, unaware that within hours her life would be in danger.
“Everything was normal, and I went to bed as usual,” she said. “Then I woke up at 4 am with a bad stomachache.”
Initially, she brushed it off. “Then I started getting a bit hot and sweaty and thought I’d definitely eaten something dodgy.”
But within minutes, her symptoms intensified in a way she had never experienced before.
“Very quickly it felt like the room was starting to collapse in and I just had this feeling of doom in the pit of my stomach,” she said. “I knew something really bad was happening.”
That sense of dread turned into a desperate realization. “In that moment, I thought I was having an allergic reaction,” she explained. “I knew that I needed to call an ambulance right now.”
She dialed for help—but didn’t make it far. “I dialled 999, they asked for my address and I don’t remember anything after that—I’d collapsed.”
A race against time
As her condition rapidly worsened, Tia’s body began shutting down.
“I could feel my throat closing,” she said. “I remember putting my fingers down my throat, trying to hold my throat open almost before fully passing out.”
Her former partner found her unconscious and unresponsive on the floor—a discovery that likely saved her life.
Tia was rushed to the hospital, where doctors quickly realized the severity of her condition. She had gone into anaphylaxis, a life-threatening allergic reaction that can cause the airways to close and the body to go into shock.
“If my partner hadn’t woken up, I would’ve died,” Tia said. “My body was starting to shut down. My throat was swollen, my breathing was so constricted.”
The experience left a lasting impression. “The anaphylaxis was very scary,” she added. “Even now it’s still scary.”
A rare diagnosis
In the aftermath of the incident, doctors worked to understand what had caused such a severe reaction in someone with no history of allergies.
The answer came in the form of a rare diagnosis: monoclonal mast cell activation syndrome, a condition that can trigger sudden and severe allergic reactions without warning.
“The specialist said they don’t know what causes it to manifest,” Tia explained. “It could’ve been because my hormones were so high after having my second child.”
Unlike typical allergies, this condition doesn’t always require an external trigger.
“It can be caused by anything and everything,” she said. “There doesn’t necessarily have to be a specific trigger.”
In Tia’s case, the reaction may have come from within her own body.
“I obviously had a reaction to something within my own body that I had a reaction to in my sleep,” she said.
Stress and exhaustion may also have played a role.
“A big trigger for it is stress,” Tia noted. “At that point I had a three-month-old baby so was probably tired and a bit stressed. I think that probably had an impact.”
Now, she lives with the knowledge that another episode could occur at any time.
“I’m a single mum at home with two kids,” she said. “I have one of those panic alarms now.”
The shocking aftermath
While surviving anaphylaxis was terrifying enough, what happened next left Tia stunned.
After being discharged from the hospital, she returned home and resumed breastfeeding—but quickly noticed something was very wrong.
“When I got out of the hospital, I needed to express milk,” she said. “And for the rest of the day it was just this clear, putrid green colour.”
The dramatic change was unlike anything she had ever seen.
“That was bizarre,” Tia said. “Usually if you’re ill or your children are ill, your body can sense it, and it almost triggers something in your system—and that’s why the breast milk can change colour.”
But this was on another level. “I was very shocked,” she admitted. “I’ve seen a slight green tinge, but that was almost translucent.”
It’s believed the unusual color may have been caused by an increase in immune-related cells—such as immunoglobulins and white blood cells—as her body fought to recover from the severe reaction.
For Tia, it was a stark reminder of just how close she had come to losing her life—and how dramatically her body had turned against itself.
And even now, the experience lingers. “If you go into full anaphylaxis, it can be very deadly unless you get treatment for it,” she said.
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