A woman has revealed her harrowing ordeal following being left unconscious for two weeks after a bleed on the brain – and it could happen again.
It was a seemingly normal day for Maria Dixon; until a blood vessel in her brain ruptured.
She had pulled up on the driveway and was found by her husband, David, 62, slumped at the wheel.
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He tried to speak with Maria, whose speech was slurred, and quickly realised her condition was a matter of life or death.
The moments that followed were a complete blur for the quantitative surveyor – until two weeks later, when she woke up in a hospital bed.
“It was all pitch black for me,” Maria, from Manchester, told Need To Know.
“I was lying in intensive care with no memory.
“It was such a shock.
“My family said I looked blank and that I kept coming out with rubbish.
“I don’t remember it at all – but they said it was frightening.”
Maria had told David she felt sick after being found in her car in January 2024.
He helped her upstairs, where she suddenly screamed, clutched her head and collapsed unconscious.
She said: “David tried to drag me, but I was a dead weight.
“He left me on the landing and phoned for an ambulance.
“Within minutes, I was being blue-lighted to hospital and my family was told that the bleed was so severe that it’s unlikely I’d make it.”
Maria had suffered a grade four haemorrhage, and, at first, surgery was ruled out.
After discussions, surgeons agreed to clip the aneurysm, though warned her loved ones it would be likely that if she survived, the 59-year-old would be left severely disabled.
When she came to, a rehabilitation programme was put in place, though this achieved little to no progress.
It was agreed to undergo further brain surgery to remove fluid build-up and place a shunt.
When she woke up this time, however, it was like a “switch” had gone off.
She said: “It was like I had woken up again for the first time since I fell unconscious.
“It felt like I had been asleep.
“And everything that happened was a dream.
“I was a completely different person.
“I was determined to walk again and within one week, I did just that.
“I also had to relearn how to eat and talk.
“Even when it was hard, I kept pushing myself to get better.”
Maria hadn’t been aware of brain aneurysms until her mum passed away after one ruptured in 2013.
After suffering her own battle, she’s using her experience to give back to the rehabilitation centre that helped her by speaking with other patients.
Now, over two years later, Maria is thriving and defied the odds.
But she’s not out of the woods yet, as another aneurysm has been found.
Maria said: “It’s not going to take over my life.
“I’m getting monitored, a coil is in place and the shunt is working.
“That’s all I can do.
“I have no fear now; so there’s no point worrying.”
She’s working closely with HBA Support to express the importance of getting a scan if aneurysms run in the family – as it could save lives.
She added: “I’m living proof it does get better and survival is possible after a rupture.
“I was saved for a reason and that reason is to give hope to other people.
“I went from doctors saying I wouldn’t make it to living a life I love.”
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