A MUM fears her “fit and healthy” will never make a full recovery after she found him unconscious at home.
Philip Masey, a 31-year-old mortgage adviser, was living in Kidderminster, Worcestershire, with his girlfriend of three years when he collapsed without warning while home alone in February.
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Unable to get hold of him for several hours and becoming concerned, his mum, Charlotte Mannouris, 57, drove to his home where she found him unconscious on the floor.
She immediately phoned an ambulance and he was blue-lighted to hospital.
A scan revealed a “big bleed” in Philip’s brain and he was rushed for emergency surgery, where a large portion of his skull was removed and he was placed in an induced coma.
Charlotte was warned he may never speak or work again.
When he came around six days later, Philip was “confused”, unable to eat solid food, string a sentence together or move his right side.
In recent weeks he has made some progress with speaking and walking, but Charlotte said there is only a “slim chance” he will make a full recovery.
She said: “Philip would say live life to the full because you just don’t know how your life is going to change overnight.
“He wasn’t someone who abused his body, he was a very healthy, fit man and he’s too young to lose the best years of his life.
“This could have happened to anybody, it was so sudden, so random and completely spontaneous – there was no preparation for it and no warning signs to look out for.”
On February 7 this year, Philip – an avid golfer – was alone at home after his girlfriend went away.
Charlotte said she received a call from one of Philip’s friends to say he was struggling to get hold of him.
“With his job, he’s often on the phone for a long time at once, so if I ring him and he doesn’t answer, he’ll usually call me back an hour or two later,” she said.
“I called him but this time, he wasn’t ringing back.”
After leaving numerous calls and messages, Charlotte drove the one-hour and 30-minute distance to his house, where she found him unconscious on the floor.
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She immediately phoned for an ambulance and Philip was taken to the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham, where scans revealed a “big bleed” on his brain.
“They had to operate quickly, otherwise he wouldn’t survive the night,” the mum said.
Philip was rushed for emergency surgery, where a large portion of the left side of his skull was removed to reduce the swelling on his brain.
“I don’t think I blinked for 24 hours,” Charlotte said.
“I couldn’t believe what was happening, it was surreal.
“It was just a spontaneous thing that could have been just that one weakness in a vein in his head.”
Philip then spent six days in a medically induced coma and on a ventilator, which was a “worrying” time for his loved ones.
“Because we didn’t know how long he’d spent lying on the floor, we didn’t know what the prognosis would be,” Charlotte said.
“I was prepared for him to lose the use of his right arm and right leg, because the injury was on the left side of his brain.
“They warned me he may never speak and he would never work again.”
Small wins
Thankfully, Philip has made positive steps in his recovery.
After waking up from the coma on February 14, Charlotte said he was “confused” and “in and out of sleep” but after a while, he started to recognise one or two people coming to visit him.
He was first fed through a tube before being weened onto soft food and now, he can eat as normal.
For his speech, movement and cognition, however, there is still a long way to go.
“He can say quite a lot of standard phrases like ‘yes please’ and ‘no, thank you’, but anything else comes out mixed up and indecipherable and I have to try and guess what he means,” Charlotte said.
“He wouldn’t be able to remember enough to do his job but he knows what he wants to do, like going back to bed and putting the TV on.
“He’s taking a couple of steps now, he’s in a wheelchair but he can stand up with help.”
At present, Charlotte said there is a “slim chance” he will make a full recovery.
“They’ve said he’ll walk, but whether he is fit and running like he used to, I don’t know,” she said.
“There’s a slight chance, a slim chance he could make a full recovery.”
What is a brain bleed?
A brain bleed is a type of stroke.
It causes blood to pool between your brain and skull, causing pressure to build up and preventing oxygen from reaching your brain.
It’s life-threatening and requires quick treatment for the best outcome.
Brain bleeds are common after falls or traumatic injuries. They’re also common in people with unmanaged high blood pressure.
Symptoms of a brain bleed vary based on the type, but could include:
- Sudden tingling, weakness, numbness or paralysis of your face, arm or leg, particularly on one side of your body
- Sudden, severe headache
- Nausea and vomiting
- Confusion
- Dizziness
- Slurred speech
- Lack of energy, sleepiness
In addition, you may experience:
- Difficulty swallowing
- Vision loss
- Stiff neck
- Sensitivity to light
- Loss of balance or coordination
- Trouble breathing and abnormal heart rate
- Seizures
- Loss of consciousness and coma
Source: Cleveland Clinic
On March 21, Philip was relocated to Evesham Community Hospital to rehabilitate, where he spent four weeks undergoing physiotherapy and speech therapy.
Since April 18, he has been able to return home to continue his recovery under the full-time care of his mum and family.
Charlotte has launched a GoFundMe page to help her make adaptions to the house, such as putting in a wet room, and to pay for additional physiotherapy and speech therapy sessions, raising more than £13,000.
“The NHS care has been very good but we need to top it up with private help,” she said.
“It needs to be quite intense to give him the best chance to recover and he will probably need it for a couple of years.”
To find out more, visit the fundraiser for Philip here.
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