A 35-year-old dad has died on holiday with a rare case of acute pancreatitis just 36 hours after his stomach pain was initially dismissed as food poisoning.
Katerina Glazyrina, 41, has been “heart warmed” by the support she has received from her local community in Hackney, east London, after her husband Andrejs Krievkalns died suddenly without life insurance.
On January 3, Katerina and Andrejs, who both worked in advertising, were on holiday in Sunny Beach, Bulgaria, with their five-year-old daughter Lizzie when he complained of a stomach ache – which they assumed was food poisoning as Andrejs was otherwise in good health.
But the pain continued and spread to his back and soon he was in hospital in Burgas diagnosed with acute pancreatitis — a sudden inflammation of the pancreas which only leads to severe complications in one in five cases, and only a small percentage of those prove fatal, according to the NHS.
Katerina said Andrejs told her not to worry and he would be “home soon”.
However, after she left the hospital, Andrejs’ condition caused multiple organ failure and he died on January 4.
“When I heard the news I was alone,” Katerina told PA Real Life.
“It was the hardest day of my life. I don’t know how I managed to get through it.
“We were preparing to return to normal life after the Christmas time.
“It’s like you went on holiday and you can never come back to the life you’ve been building together.”
Katerina hopes to raise awareness of the symptoms of pancreatitis, which include sudden severe pain in the centre of the abdomen which gets steadily worse and can then travel along your back, according to the NHS.
She also hopes to encourage parents to take out life insurance, adding: “You never know what events can happen and you don’t want to add financial pressure on top of the grief and many other complexities that surround loss.”
Katerina, originally from Russia, met Latvian-born Andrejs in London in 2006 while they were both students.
After seven years of friendship, their relationship evolved into love and they married at Hackney City Hall in 2013, before Lizzie was born in 2019.
“He was a family man – that was his focus,” Katerina said.
The family took a holiday to the Black Sea in Bulgaria for their new year break.
After enjoying a week and a half together, they were due to return to London on January 4, but the day before Andrejs told Katerina he had “a bit of tummy pain”.
Andrejs had previously had food poisoning in Bulgaria so they presumed the spasmodic pain was something similar.
He stayed in bed while Katerina packed their bags and prepared to leave, but the pain continued, spreading to his back and making his stomach tender to touch.
Nevertheless, he said he was prepared to fly and he was able to sit up and go to the bathroom.
“He probably didn’t want to worry me,” Katerina said.
“And I couldn’t measure his pain.”
Katerina visited the local pharmacy but the drugs they sold her didn’t help.
“He began to look pale, so we cancelled the flight and called an ambulance,” Katerina said.
“They found his blood pressure was low.”
It was difficult to explain Andrejs’ pain accurately because of the language barrier, but when doctors touched his abdomen, he moaned and they said he should go to hospital.
Andrejs was taken to Burgas Hospital, where a doctor told Katerina he had pancreatitis.
When she saw Andrejs last, he told her: “Don’t worry I’ll be home soon.”
When she returned later that day, she discovered he had been taken to the intensive care unit with multiple organ dysfunction, which can be caused by acute pancreatitis.
He died just before midnight on January 4 and Katerina was informed at 6am the next morning.
With her daughter to look after and all the paperwork required to repatriate his body, Katerina said she “didn’t have the option to fall apart”.
“You have to find ways to be strong,” she said.
“(Grief) changes you every day… you lose them every day – when you look at your child and want to adore her, you lose them.
“Anything you do that reminds you makes you lose them again.”
Katerina and Andrejs had been in contact with life insurance brokers in 2024 and they were in the process of finding the right policy for life and critical illness insurance – but hadn’t completed the process before he died.
After his death, Katerina’s local community in Hackney came together to raise money for her and her daughter, raising more than £12,500 through an online fundraiser on GoFundMe.
“The community response has been amazing,” she said.
“I never expected it in a million years. I’m just grateful, that’s all I can say.”
Katerina said it is not just the money, but the way people want to help.
“People are so willing to help me and my daughter, it melts my heart,” she said.
“It’s beautiful. I can only say thank you.”
Despite the tragedy and hardship which has followed, Katerina is hopeful she can harness her experiences to help others going through the same thing.
Using her coaching knowledge, Katerina has started to share her reflections on recovering from loss on her Instagram page coaching_with_kat.
“It’s hard to find the balance between grieving and the extreme responsibility of things to do,” she said.
“I want to be able to empower others as a transformational life coach, and help people going through big life changes.”
She said Andrejs will always be remembered in the community and by his family.
“Everyone mentions how kind he was,” she said.
“He was such a caring man and I hope our daughter thriving will be his legacy.”
Katerina and her daughter can be supported through their GoFundMe page.
