A woman, whose last memory was going to the pub for a casual drink, has revealed how she woke up in hospital six weeks later.
Laura Reeve was enjoying a drink and game of darts in her local pub, when she decided to pop back home to use her own bathroom.
As the 34-year-old walked the short journey home, she found herself tripping on her own feet.
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“Public toilets grossed me out and as the flat was a less than two-minute walk away, I thought I’d just pop back,” Laura, from Shoeburyness in Essex, told Need To Know.
“I wouldn’t be long, so I didn’t bother to tell my boyfriend or any of my friends where I was going.
“Parking my pint on the table, I headed out the door.
“The flat, close to the pub, had a steep flight of stairs which I started climbing.
“But as I made my way up, I lost my footing.
“Then everything went black.”
The next thing she knew after the May 2014 incident, her eyes cracked open to find the sound of beeps and the smell of bleach.
She said: “I realised I was in a hospital bed.
“Looking down at myself, my body was surrounded by wires and tubes.
“Panic coursed through me.
“I thought to myself ‘What on earth is going on?’”
Her mum, Janet, was next to her, and told her what had happened – and that six weeks had passed.
Filling her in, she said a glass collector from the pub had been passing the stairs and found Laura with blood “gushing” from her head after falling hard on the concrete floor.
She said: “I was resuscitated before being rushed to hospital for life-saving brain surgery.
“But during the operation, I’d suffered multiple strokes, leaving the left side of my body completely paralysed.
“After receiving a devastating phone call that doctors thought they were losing me, my parents had rushed from their home in Essex to be with me.”
She had been in an induced coma for six weeks.
She said: “When the day came to bring me round, I was told I’d refused to wake up, forcing doctors to transfer me to a London hospital specialising in traumatic brain injuries rehabilitation.
‘“Do you understand what I’m saying?’ Mum asked as she finished the tale.
“I took in the words, but none of it seemed real.
“My head pounded.”
She couldn’t believe she had been in the pub six weeks before, for Laura it felt like it was just yesterday and that she had a bad hangover.
She said: “It wasn’t until I was well enough to sit in a wheelchair and start therapy to help with my recovery that I caught sight of myself in the mirror and reality sunk in.
“My long brunette hair had been partially shaved off for the surgery.
“And the stroke had paralysed my facial muscles and I couldn’t smile.
“But the worst part was, I couldn’t speak.
“During the coma, doctors had conducted a tracheostomy, inserting a small pipe into my throat to help me breathe as well as feeding me via a PEG tube.
“I needed therapy to retrain my lips and mouth to do the right things if I wanted to speak and eat on my own again.
“I became strong enough to have the tracheostomy trachea tube removed.
“Slowly, I made progress and was able to be fed puréed food and yogurt.”
Then, one day when her parents were visiting, she got playing with her dad’s phone.
She said: “‘Got some movement there, kiddo, do you think you could hold a pencil?’ he asked.
“He passed me a pencil while mum scrambled for a scrap of paper.
“‘Try and write something,’ mum encouraged.
“‘Home’ I wrote. That’s where I wanted to be.”
But the reality was, in her condition, it was unlikely she’d be able to go home.
She said: “With my body paralysed, I’d need round-the-clock care after I was discharged from hospital.
“Recovery was slow and frustrating and the longer I was in hospital, the more depressed I became.
“Maybe it would have been better off if I’d died, I thought.
“But months later, with my breathing tube removed, I was discharged into a neurorehabilitation centre.
“It was a step in the right direction and I grew determined to speak again.”
Soon, small growls and grumbles escaped her mouth, and it wasn’t long before those noises turned into words.
She said: “My mum asked if I wanted to sit up, and I said ‘no’.
“I couldn’t believe it.
“Having not been used for months, my voice sounded crispy and unnatural, but I was speaking.”
Now, Laura feels as though she has more of her independence back and has moved to a care home where they specialise in giving independence to disabled people.
She said: “I’ve had to come to terms with what’s happened to me.
“The brain injury has changed our lives forever — for me, my family and my friends.
“But I’ve grieved my old life and learnt to accept that I have to make the most of my life as it is now.
“I’m lucky to have amazing family and friends who involve and include me in everything they do.”
She has also been accepted onto a master’s in psychology and even penned a book about her experiences, available on Amazon and titled ‘LOR:A Personal Tale Of Traumatic Brain Injury’.
For her 30th birthday, Laura went back to Gibraltar – where she had last vacationed with her family before the incident.
She said: “I was worried it wouldn’t be the same, but they had so much support for me.
“I was even able to get into the sea using a hoist and floats.
“As the water washed over me, I felt truly happy.
“It’s important not to live in regret — life is precious and it can be taken away in a flash.”
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