Sue Mahony - Brain Stem Stroke
It was, Saturday 16th June, 2012 - this was the day I had my brain stem stroke.
We were about to head off to our local football match. At the time, I was team manager for the under 18 team.
It was about 7.30 am, I had finished my shower and as I was getting dressed I started feeling dizzy. My eyes were starting to go cross eyed, and I had a terrible, terrible noise in my head. I liken it to a high pitch industrial fan!
I frantically yelled out to my husband Rob, who rang 000 straight away. When the local ambulance arrived, the paramedics seemed to think I had gastro. They had to find & replace batteries for the thermometer & fill out paperwork – precious time lost.
I remember saying to Rob and our boys, “don’t forget to feed our pets Rocky and Tom. I was completely unprepared for what followed - I had never been sick.
The local paramedics gave me pain relief to inhale, it did nothing to lessen the pain, and by this time I was feeling nauseated.
The Ballarat territory ambulance was waiting for the local one at our local hospital for approximately half an hour. Once in the other ambulance the paramedics quickly realised that I may be suffering a stroke.
While I was on route, the emergency department doctor in Ballarat got permission from a Royal Melbourne Hospital neurologist to give me blood thinning medication, once a scan confirmed the stroke diagnosis - but I crashed just before the scan.
The doctors decided to put me into an induced coma, and then be flown to Melbourne for treatment. And TPA, the blood thinner, was approved to be administered without a CT scan.
My husband Rob was told this heart wrenching news that I was indeed having a stroke, and I was being prepared to be flown to the Royal Melbourne hospital.
Rob was left to tell our children Andrew and Matthew the terrible news, that at best, I had a one percent chance of survival.
The neuro team at The Royal Melbourne Hospital assembled their Code Stroke Team. They successfully performed a new procedure that extracted the three clots from my brain stem.
Thank God this new procedure was available. I was in intensive care for three days, and on the stroke ward for approximately a week.
I was then transferred back to St John of God hospital Ballarat, where I had daily rehab for a week. After that I was able to go home and continued rehabilitation as an outpatient twice a week for a number of months.
My right hand side had been effected, however after rehab it’s back to about 95 percent. My speech gets slurred when I'm tired, and I suffer from fatigue.
I am very grateful for the Royal Melbourne Neuro Team, St Johns Ballarat, and the paramedic's from Ballarat. Especially the paramedic in the back of the ambulance who was sure I was having a stroke and called St Johns hospital Ballarat.