On the 10th of November, 2021, I went to work as normal. I am a health care worker at Arrow Park Hospital.
The day my aneurysm burst, I was at work. Thank God I had just had my lunch and went back to work. I was walking down the ward to get some clean towels and linen for a patient when I remember getting this severe pain in the right side of my head. Then I knew nothing.
Everyone came to help. Apparently, the matron and my friends on the ward were there, and a call was put out for a MET call so the doctors on call came straight away. My right eye had blown, which is a bad sign, and my heart was going to stop. I had a cardiac arrest on the ward floor. The defibrillator was used and started my heart.
I was taken to the ward next door, away from my colleagues, and ventilated. Then I was taken down for a scan to see what was going on, and that’s when the bleed was found. I was taken to ICU, and Walton Hospital was contacted to see if they would accept me there for treatment.
I was blue-lighted over to Walton, where I was treated. They did a balloon-assisted coil, and my family were told that it was touch and go and didn’t know if I would wake up or what condition I would be in.
After they tried to wake me up from the coma, I came out of the coma on the third attempt, 8 days later. My hands had big gloves on them to stop me from pulling out the tubes.
After so many days, I was taken to the ward, where I got back on my feet after being wheeled to the toilet and shower. I came home to my family 4 weeks later.
Four years on, I still suffer from fatigue and get tired, but I can walk, I can talk, I can drive, and I went back to work at the hospital. I am living life to the full. I now have 2 grandsons, and I feel so lucky to have them.
