A healthy woman aged 34 has revealed how a sudden stroke left her unable to walk, talk or even eat – and is urging others not to ignore strange symptoms, no matter how fit they are.
Melissa Clayton, a public relations account director from London, was holidaying with friends in Barbados last year when she suddenly began suffering from severe stomach pain and nausea.
She was rushed to hospital and doctors initially suspected dengue fever, a mosquito-borne virus common in the Caribbean, but blood tests came back clear.
She was discharged and, still unwell, flew home to the UK – where her GP was also unable to pinpoint the cause.
Weeks later, on January 22, 2024, Ms Clayton was lying in bed when she suddenly found herself unable to move or speak.
‘The last thing I remember is the paramedics trying to lift me onto the stretcher,’ she said. ‘By that point, I couldn’t move a muscle.’
Doctors told her family shesuffered a seizure triggered by a blood clot in her neck.
She underwent emergency surgery to remove it and briefly regained her ability to speak – but, 24 hours later, her condition deteriorated and a brain scan revealed she suffered a stroke.
Melissa Clayton, 34, has revealed how a sudden stroke left her unable to walk, talk or even eat – and is urging others not to ignore strange symptoms, no matter how fit they think they are
Ms Clayton was rushed back into surgery. Medics also discovered she had an undiagnosed hole in her heart – though this was unlikely to have caused the clot.
‘I don’t know what caused it,’ she said. ‘But I think it was my flights to and from Barbados over New Year.’
Ms Clayton is urging others – especially younger people – to take the risk of blood clots seriously.
She said: ‘No matter how fit and healthy you are, you may not be aware of even having a blood clot. So it’s really important to get checked whenever you’re feeling weird or worried.’
There are two main types of stroke. The vast majority are ischaemic, caused by a blockage – often a blood clot.
Around 15 per cent are haemorrhagic, where a weakened blood vessel supplying the brain bursts. In both cases symptoms are similar.
Ms Clayton’s warning comes amid a sharp rise in strokes among younger Britons – with a quarter, around 20,000 cases, occurring in people of working age, according to the Stroke Association.
And while the number of new stroke cases diagnosed annually has dropped in older age groups over the last ten to 20 years, it has doubled in those under 55, say researchers from the University of Oxford – which has launched a study to understand the reasons behind this rise.
Ms Clayton’s warning comes amid a sharp rise in strokes among younger Britons – with a quarter of strokes in the UK, around 20,000 cases, occurring in people of working age
The National Young Stroke Study is investigating both traditional risks – such as high blood pressure, smoking and obesity – and emerging factors such as stress, poor mental health, long hours at work and oral health to better prevent strokes.
Detecting a stroke early is essential to reducing its long-term impact – but this relies on recognising the warning signs, which may not be easy to spot.
Professor Debbie Lowe, national clinical lead for stroke medicine and medical director at the Stroke Association said: ‘Around 20 per cent of strokes affect the back part of the brain when blood flow is affected to areas such as the cerebellum, brainstem [which regulates breathing and heart rate], and certain lobes that impact vision, memory and speech.
‘These type of strokes more commonly cause symptoms such as dizziness, difficulty speaking and visual disturbance, which don’t always get picked up using the common “Fast” check,’ she explains.
The acronym Fast recognises the most common signs of stroke: facial weakness, arm weakness and speech problems – (the ‘t’ stands for time to call emergency services).
‘That’s why it’s important for people – including healthcare professionals – to know about the less common symptoms, too,’ she added.
These include sudden memory loss or confusion, loss of balance, nausea or sickness, seizures, sudden behavioural changes and a severe headache.
If caught early, ischaemic strokes can often be treated with clot-busting drugs that restore blood flow to the brain.
Ms Clayton underwent a long journey of rehabilitation over several months after the debilitating stroke
But these treatments are only effective if given in the first four hours of symptoms appearing – making swift recognition and emergency care vital.
If blood flow is not quickly restored, brain cells begin to die, potentially leaving patients with lasting disabilities and in need of extensive rehabilitation.
After her second operation – this time to relieve swelling on her brain by removing part of her skull – Ms Clayton was placed in an induced coma to aid her recovery.
When she eventually woke up, she found herself back at square one.
‘I couldn’t move. I couldn’t even think straight,’ she said.
She later underwent another procedure and began a long, gruelling road to recovery – spending seven months in hospital under constant medical supervision.
Ms Clayton had to relearn how to walk, talk and eat. Despite the physical challenges, she said the hardest part was coping with the boredom.
‘I was lucky – I had loads of visitors. My parents came and read to me every day. But still, it was the monotony that got to me.’
In those long days, however, there were meaningful moments. Her health crisis led her to reconnect with old university friends, and she found new ways to communicate – with humour and determination.
She began using an alphabet board to spell out words: ‘I got so fast, people couldn’t keep up.’
Speech therapy brought fresh frustrations. She had to learn how to speak again by singing Happy Birthday – something she described as ‘infuriatingly hard’.
After three months at the Royal London Hospital in Whitechapel, she was transferred to Homerton Hospital’s Regional Neurological Rehabilitation Unit in Hackney – where she finally began to build serious momentum.
In a matter of months, she went from using a wheelchair to walking, and from eating purees to soft-chew foods.
Determined throughout and supported by many, she beat her discharge date by a couple of weeks, being allowed to go home in July 2024.
She has gradually returned to work and is looking to move to Leigh-on-Sea with the dog she adopted during her recovery.
And while she had previously enjoyed exercise, taking HIIT and spin classes, she remains hopeful she will be able to return to the gym in good time.
This article was originally published by a www.dailymail.co.uk . Read the Original article here. .