There are some very unkind and unnecessary posts on here, some people are just know it all's who think their word is law, and in my experience those people always tend to be shall we say a little lite on reality.
Trying to get some mileage out of Natalie's illness for their own agenda is reprehensible.

I hope she's better soon - whatever the form of her faint

Well quite

I agree it is very sad actually.

Not surprising, given her dancing background.

You did suffer a proper faint....your description fits the bill perfectly....but when you'v seen countless patients you come to appreciate not all faints are the same....Anything from " I feel a bit faint and need to lie down".....to " keeling over without warning"...literally dropping to the floor....Sometimes the patient also vomits...or wets themselves....Even more alarming is when they start to convulse or their eyes roll back to reveal the white of their eyes.

I have't really followed the Scd forum this year...so no idea of who is supporting who...or who has an agenda against X,Y or Z....All I said was that from the footage available it did't look like Natalie had suffered a full on faint...ie flat out.....but then I would't expect the BBC to broadcast such an event in full....But for all I or anyone else knows she could have been flat on her back and receiving Oxygen for 10 minutes before she was seen being wheeled from the studio.

At the end of the day she was assessed by a Doctor and deemed not fit to perform....Fingers and toes crossed she's feeling fit and well again and raring to resume dancing this coming week

I don't think it was necessary for us to be shown the backstage footage, but having seen it I understand why the Mirror have indirectly labelled it a 'panic attack'.

I agree the footage of her distress was needless. I have been a bit bemused about her really. If she wanted to be a professinal dancer and after years of classes to that end had to shelve the idea because of a back problem then I don't quite understand why she is on this show, especially as she is training for weeks at full pelt (would she train any harder is she was in a proper professional competition?). Is she only managing because as you say she is doped up with painkillers? Either way if she really has such a back problem she can't dance full time she can't really being doing herself any good with the level of committment she obviously has to the dancing.

I can't help but feel she must be absolutely desperate to do what she is doing but if she doing it to the detriment of her health then she is being very foolish.

Which may account for her recent fainting episodes....Countless hours training...maybe coupled with less sleep than normal due to a touch of anxiety....and she may or not be eating as much as normal....All these things rolling together may have resulted in a mini panic attack and a feeling of foreboding...made even worse if her mindset was that only the very best will do....end result...light headiness and anxiety.....and let's not forget her dodgy back...If the muscles went into spasm then the pain alone may have resulted in a light head and the feeing of faintness.

Desperate for what?Perhaps you could enlighten us as to why you would think her desperate.

She obviously loves dance and it was taken away from her in her teens through injury.....just maybe the lure of once again being able to dance and more than that dance with a professional got the better of her, maybe she thought as 10 years had passed that she could cope with a TV show about dancing. Maybe she underestimated the pressures and time needed or maybe she is just a perfectionist and wants to live up to high standards....I think calling her desperate is very unfair and unwarranted.

Well said, it has been mentioned elsewhere that ALL the celebrities find SCD far harder than they expected.

I am sure every one of them finds it harder than they expected, but some people seem to think that Natalie is exempt from this because they think she must find it so easy, they also seem to think she should not have nerves about it because she is so good and she should not say how hard it is because obviously for her it cannot be hard.They all seem to underestimate the commitment needed for this show....look at Ashley who thinks he can achieve it all on 10 hours a week in between all his other commitments.

I think the one thing that Natalie did underestimate badly is the level of scrutiny and the level of hate towards her that her appearance would bring and I have thought for many weeks now that she is not coping very well with that side of reality TV.

She seems very different from how she was pre Strictly in her interviews, tongue tied and relying on Artem a good deal to answer questions, she seems full of doubt and lacking in confidence which is totally different from how I have previously seen her....she is not a reality TV junkie and so I think the levels of hate and scrutiny are a shock to her system so much so that when added to all the usual pressures of having to be physically well and giving all her time and commitment its just too much for her to cope with.

A build up of stress has to have an outlet and maybe yesterday she reached her limit and the result is what we are now seeing.

I just want her to take care of herself now, and even though she is this year's show for me she should maybe just take it easy and bow out for her own sake....its a sad thought but her health is more important.

For safety's sake, I feel I must comment that the treatment you describe is not the approved Recovery Position - which involves turning the person on their side, so that they don't choke if they vomit while unconscious.

People can recover spontaneously from loss of consciousness (or "proper faints" as you put it).

Did one of the witnesses not say that she was shaking prior to the faint?

Yes thats a very basic piece of advice...and one which I thought we all knew medical or not.

Artem said that after she had "collapsed" and he, the medic and others were round her, they couldn't pick her up and "she was shaking a lot".

As somebody who faints on occasion (as posted earlier in the thread) I appreciate you drawing attention to the approved advice to put the victim in the recovery position. Whenever I've fainted I've felt enough of a tit afterwards without coming to to find myself on my back with my legs in the air.

Actually, the cruise company put out a statement that they were perfectly willing to work around his schedule on Strictly and/or host Kristina on the cruise so that he could practise. So the speaking engagement can't really be said to be the reason why he left, that's just a myth. It's more likely that he decided that due to all the negative reactions, it was too much hassle and he simply couldn't be bothered any more.

The recommended treatment is to put into a recovery position if they haven't regained consciousness after two minutes. Otherwise, you should lay them on their backs with feet elevated to encourage blood flow to the brain - just as swnymor described

faint=lie on back/legs raised/administer Oxygen if available...No disrespect but we are required to go on resuscitation courses every year...in addition to the annual practice based CPR and emergency proceedures courses...Guys I do this for a blooming living!!...That said if you find someone in the street who is unconcious and is lying on their back...then by all means move them to the recovery position...but a faint..especially if it happens infront of you is a different scenario

I don't think it would be very tasteful to actually show her fainting.....

Kelly Brook for one.

My problem with the footage of natalie is simply that it is a 'entertainment' show !! We don't need to see this sentimentalised melodrama in the middle or enjoying a series of brilliant performances !

She's just tweeted that it's looking like exhaustion.

Probably for her take a few days off and resume training if/ when the doctors clear her.
It's a much over used word, but true exhaustion is not good at all for the body.

Kelly withdrew.
She competed the week her dad was dying and then after he died she decided enough was enough.

No. She was told if she missed a week she was out. She was too classy to make a fuss.

Oh right. So as a new poster I am not allowed any opinion whatsoever? Perhaps you should look closer at the posts I have made. I have never said that I "hated" Natalie ~ for heavens sake, I don't know the woman! ~ and I have acknowledged that her dancing is far better than the other contestants, however, as I stated earlier, surely if she was struggling to dance as a youngster due to her back issues, then signing up for a show that is constant dancing and exercise isn't the best thing to do.
The issues I have raised are more to do with the invasiveness of the cameras on SCD who do not seem to miss a trick and yet saw no part of Natalie's faint. No, it would not have been tasteful to screen it but when has SCD ever been tasteful?
Maybe you should look at how some of the responses to my posts have been phrased if you wish to see unpleasant.

I think kelly brook is the one i was thinking of. Did she just drop out, then rather than being eliminated? Reading just above, it sounds like they didn't cut her much slack.