A mother has described how she heard a doctor asking her husband about switching off her life-support as she lay in a medically-induced coma after collapsing from a rare condition. Jenny Bone, who was feared to have catastrophic brain damage after going into cardiac arrest, lay listening to the life-or-death conversation but was paralysed and unable to intervene. She recalls her husband John ruling out ending her life – despite a previous conversation when she said she wanted to die if incapacitated permanently. The 40-year-old later recovered and now says she is relieved he went against her wishes. Near death: Jenny Bone, 40, pictured, was in a coma in hospital but heard doctors discuss ending her life only for her husband to refuse to switch off her life support machine . Much-loved: Mrs Bone, pictured with her son David and husband John, had said she would want her life support switched off, but Mr Bone refused to give up on her . ‘I was aware of conversations around me,’ she said. ‘The most frequent one was being turned in the bed. A familiar “ready, steady, turn” would come from the nurses. ‘The most alarming was between a doctor and my husband enquiring as to my wishes surrounding being kept alive on a ventilator and that they were unsure whether my mental ability had been impaired due to lack of oxygen while they were attempting to restart my heart. Starting again: A year on from her near-death experience Mrs Bone is back at work and also took part in a charity run, pictured . ‘There was an agreement that I should continue to be kept on the ventilator to give a chance for an MRI scan to be done to see if I had any brain function. ‘I was not even responding to a basic reflex test, which is why the doctor thought I was not going to have a chance of recovery. I am very pleased my husband gave me that extra time.’ Mrs Bone, a government building surveyor, felt pins and needles in her legs on March 14 last year but still went to work. She was alone in a tower block in central London when she collapsed as the pain moved up her legs. She managed to catch a train home to Leighton Buzzard, Bedfordshire, and went to her GP who immediately sent her to Luton and Dunstable Hospital with a letter saying she might have Guillain-Barre syndrome. The condition involves the immune system attacking the peripheral nervous system – the network of nerves outside the central nervous system – leaving the brain unable to control muscles. She and her husband claim the letter was handed over but not acted upon and she was initially told she had a chest complaint. Hours later she stopped breathing and went into cardiac arrest. She was given a tracheotomy to help her breathe and was placed in a light medically-induced coma. She was on a respirator in an intensive care unit when a doctor raised the subject of ending her life a few days later. Mr Bone, 58, who is also a surveyor, explained: ‘He said they didn’t know how long she was deprived of oxygen and there could be a range of deficits and it could be time to turn the machine off. I said it was far too early. ‘He said, “We have got to be realistic about what might happen,” but again I said it was too early.’ New life: Mrs Bone, pictured left and right during her recovery, had been minutes from death before she was diagnosed with rare autoimmune disease of the nervous system Guillain-Barre Syndrome . While in intensive care Mrs Bone was finally diagnosed with Guillain-Barre syndrome. Doctors realised she had a chance of surviving if kept in the coma to allow her body to repair itself. She was given intravenous immunoglobulin and had a plasma exchange. Shortly after returning home she began taking her five-year-old son, David, to school with the aid of a walking frame. Now, one year on, she is back at work and has completed a 5km charity run, negotiating the course while leaning on a walking stick. The couple have made a formal complaint to the hospital about the GP’s letter being ignored. A hospital spokesman said: ‘We are glad that Mrs Bone is recovering from her illness. However, we are sorry she did not have a positive patient experience. We are investigating the concerns raised.’ Renowned neurosurgeon Munchi Choksey said: ‘Sometimes the sedation wears off a bit, so she might have been hearing some of the conversations around her. ‘But some of the drugs like opiates [she may have been prescribed] can in some cases induce hallucinations. So it could be she was in a dream-like state and imagined what was happening.’
Jenny Bone has recovered after husband John refused to end her life . Mrs Bone fell in to a coma after falling ill with Guillain-Barre Syndrome . Nerve condition meant she appeared unconsciousness and brain dead . Heard doctors ask her husband for permission to switch off life support . She said: 'He  went against my wishes, but I am very pleased he did that'
Guillain-Barre Syndrome is where immune system attacks nervous system . Has something similar happened to you or a relative? Contact us via news@dailymail.co.uk .