As most of you know Dan was transferred to Walton for treatment in August where he spent a further 7 weeks in Hospital.
His story is a scary one to re-live - after starting with worsening tinnitus leading on to sudden onset headaches, he was eventually diagnosed with low pressure headaches caused by a cerebral fluid leak to his neck and he had had two subdural bleeds by the time he was transferred to Walton. He was unable to sit up because of the pain. To go from a fit and healthy 40 year old to see him deteriorating daily was tough. He was treated with a blood patch in Walton to fix the pressure, his pain went straight away but there were issues. He couldn’t walk without support, he was slurring his words like he’d had 25 pints but had a major personality change as he was so laid back and chilled at the same time!! He failed his kitchen assessments and was assessed as unsafe to even make a coffee and we were told he’d suffered a brain injury as a result of the trauma. I was ready to bring him home needing support at home and we were putting plans into place as a family. Lots of physio care was needed but something just didn’t add up. A re-scan showed his subdural bleeds had worsened and he was monitored and eventually Burr-hole surgery was needed to drain the bleeds. The surgeon said “He needed that more than he showed.” Once the drains were out he could walk again alone, his speech was improved, we had Dan back but with his eyesight effected when he woke from surgery. Further tests showed he’d had a stroke in his visual cortex effecting his eyesight. They believe this was caused when fixing the low pressure which in turn created high pressure due to the bleeds present at the time.
To see how far he has come since is nothing but amazing. He has recently slowly returned to work supported by the brilliant company he works for and although he still has the odd issue we really cannot thank his Neurologist, Neurosurgeon, Ophthalmologist team, Stroke team, all the physios, OT, radiology, porters and of course all the staff on Chavasse and Sherrington wards enough.
This is a big challenge for us but just a small way we can help other families who will be going through the same thing to enable them to stay at Walton.
Thank you for reading, now get donating!!! 😀 Daniel Martland