Inspirational Mekala Osborne paints token of appreciation to Edinburgh rehabilitation ward that helped her recovery

A Scot who was left fighting for survival after contracting a deadly bout of pneumonia on the trip of a lifetime has painted a token of appreciation for the Edinburgh rehabilitation ward that helped her recovery.

Mekala returned to her Prestonpans home in December

Mekala Osborne returned to her Prestonpans home for Christmas in December, 15 months after she left the country to travel.

However, Mekala was given just a five per cent chance of survival after the bronchial pneumonia worsened just weeks after she left her home in September 2019 and her family were told to ‘pray she survives’.

After spending months in a specialist unit in Da Nang, Vietnam and almost a fortnight in an induced coma, Mekala was flown back to the UK where she then spent a further 117 days in Edinburgh’s Royal Infirmary until March 2020 when she was moved to the Astley Ainslie.

During her time at the Astley Ainslie hospital, Mekala worked with occupational therapists who have helped her begin to walk again.

Ahead of leaving the hospital to finally go home, Mekala created a painting as a parting gift to the Charles Bell ward 2where she was recovering.

Posting the painting on their Twitter account on Sunday night, the ward wrote: “#NewProfilePic painted in acrylic by one of our patients as a parting gift. Means the world to us and is so personal!”

Mekala retweeted the post and added: “Lil painting I did for CB2 as a token of my appreciation for everything they done for me! The best ward.”

Throughout her recovery, inspirational Mekala has posted updates and messages of hope for the future to loved ones and followers.

A message from the Editor:

Thank you for reading this article. We're more reliant on your support than ever as the shift in consumer habits brought about by coronavirus impacts our advertisers.

If you haven't already, please consider supporting our trusted, fact-checked journalism by taking out a digital subscription.