DREAMS CRUSHED
My healthy son burned the candle at both ends – but now faces life in a wheelchair after suffering a stroke at just 30
The red flag stroke symptoms to act on immediately
A BRIT who dreamt of moving to Australia for years has had his dreams destroyed after suffering a stroke at 30 in a "cruel" twist of fate.
Liam Rudd and his girlfriend, Stella Slinger Thompson, 28, were fulfilling their shared "dream" of moving to the Gold Coast in Australia.
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Liam was "excited" for his new job as a fleet mechanic, but on November 11 - just a day before he was about to start - the 30-year-old suffered from a stroke in the shower.
He fell to the bathroom floor paralysed, where he was evenutally discovered by Stella.
After being rushed to hospital, Liam had two rounds of emergency surgery to remove blood clots in his brain and was put in an induced coma.
Now, the couple are being forced to cut their dream short and return to the UK, as they can't afford the cost of rehabilitation in Australia.
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Stella has set up a to raise funds so they can both travel business class to get Liam safely back home and begin the intensive rehabilitation process.
She says: "We don't know what's going to happen.
"He could be in a wheelchair for the rest of his life. Who knows at this stage. It's a lot of living in limbo and trying to stay positive but not really knowing anything."
While his recovery could take up to a year and a half, he remains hopeful he'll be able to one day continue his dream and move back to Australia.
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Liam's mum, Mandy Mayhew, an estate agent who lives in Hayling Island, Hampshire, flew out to Australia for two weeks to be with her son once she heard the news.
Mandy said: "I've never cried so much in my life. It was such a shock to everyone. They don't know how it happened. They don't know why it happened.
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"He is super fit and he eats really clean."
Mandy says at first the family feared he would be "brain dead on his right-hand side and completely paralysed on the left-hand side" - but his progress has been "extraordinary".
"A long way to go but obviously extraordinary," she says.
"How cruel is that. Apart from doing a degree which is hard and an engineering degree is very hard, he's also been fixing people's cars.
"He burns the candle at 100 ends. He spreads himself very thin. I said 'that made you stop didn't it'."
Doctors haven't confirmed what caused the stroke but think it may be linked to a fibroelastoma, a benign tumour that can grow on the heart valves.
Liam, who will be moving back to Guildford, Surrey, said: "It was a huge shock. I don't remember too much from the lead up. I didn't feel any symptoms coming on.
"I just remember having the stroke and being paralysed on the floor and scrambling and trying to pull myself up but being unable too.
"I was due to start a new job as a fleet mechanic for a fleet engineer company. I love work so I was disappointed.
"But at the same time there was nothing I could do to change anything so you have to embrace it.
"My plan is to go back to the UK to undergo intensive rehabilitation and then come back to Australia anyway. That's still an open opportunity.
"I'm very fortunate. My employer's been very understanding. I don't think the opportunity is lost.
"The doctors expect a full recovery but it's a long road ahead and will take an incredible amount of work to get to. You have to keep the mind strong."
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'Nightmare'
Stella, who works as an advertising producer and is from Brighton, East Sussex, was due to meet Liam for lunch with friends on November 11 and became concerned when he wasn't answering his phone.
After finding him lying on the bathroom floor she called an ambulance thinking he'd had a concussion.
Stella said: "It was insane. Even now I don't think I've come to terms with it. This is a living nightmare.
"He was late picking me up. Usually he is a bit late so I didn't think much of it. But I was calling him for over an hour. I would call then it would ring and it would pick up and decline.
"I thought 'this is odd'. Then finally after an hour he picked up. He wasn't making any sense. All I could make out was him saying 'help'. So I rushed round and also called three of his friends.
"We arrived and found him on the bathroom floor. He'd had a shower clearly and fainted or hit his head. He was tapping his head and tapping the floor to communicate to us that he'd fallen.
"I called the ambulance. They gave me a note to put him in a recovery position, because he'd been throwing up.
"We all at the time thought he had a really bad concussion. We didn't realise at that point what it was."
Liam became unresponsive in his left side and after arriving at hospital doctors revealed he'd had a stroke and needed emergency surgery to remove a blood clot in his brain.
However, during the eight-hour op, doctors found a second blood clot that was too "high risk" to operate on immediately.
He had to have a second surgery the next day, which took six hours.
Stella said th experience has been "bleak" adding: "From then he was in a coma. They started to take him off sedation three days later. He slowly came out of the coma and came off all the tubes."
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What are the symptoms of stroke?
The FAST method – which stands for Face, Arms, Speech, Time – is the easiest way to remember the most common symptoms of stroke:
F = Face drooping - if one side of a person's face is dropped or numb then ask them to smile, if it's uneven then you should seek help.
A = Arm weakness - if one arm is weak or numb then you should ask the person to raise both arms. If one arm drifts downwards then you might need to get help
S = Speech difficulty - if a person's speech is slurred then this could be a sign of a stroke
T = Time to call 999 - if a person has the signs above then you need to call 999 in the UK or 911 in the US for emergency care.
Other symptoms include:
- sudden weakness or numbness on one side of the body
- difficulty finding words
- sudden blurred vision or loss of sight
- sudden confusion, dizziness or unsteadiness
- a sudden and severe headache
- difficulty understanding what others are saying
- difficulty swallowing
'Living in limbo'
The mechanic is currently being seen five times a day by doctors in a stroke ward.
While Liam's emergency medical expenses are covered by the UK's reciprocal agreement with Australia, it does not cover his rehabilitation process because he's not an Australian citizen nor does he have a sponsorship.
Stella said: "As soon as he's moved to the rehab ward that's when the costs will start coming.
"It would become very costly and a financial burden to the point where it's £8,000 a week.
"They've advised that the best-case scenario is for us to go to the UK and get the rehab he needs back home where it is free because of the amazing NHS."
The advertising producer set up the GoFundMe page to help cover the cost of flying Liam home safely in business class before he will be taken to the nearest hospital.
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Stella said: "[The support has] been overwhelming. When we first launched it within 12 hours it was on £12,000. He, for the first time, got emotional and actually cried because he was so overwhelmed by the love and support he's had.
"Staying here full time was the ultimate dream for him, and for us. It's been unfortunate. We hope we can get him well enough to come back out here and continue his dream."
Strokes in young people
A common misconception about stroke is that it mainly affects older people, but a stroke can affect anyone of any age.
One in four strokes happen in people of working age, according to Stroke Association.
The charity says strokes in people younger than 60 increased by almost 16 per cent between 2013 and 2023.
The Oxford Vascular Study includes data from over 94,000 people registered with GP practices in Oxfordshire over a 20-year period.
It found that between 2002-2010 and 2010-2018, there was a 67 per cent increase in stroke incidence among younger adults aged under 55, and a 15 per cent decrease among older adults.
Among young people who had a stroke, there was a significant increase in people doing more skilled occupations, particularly for professional or managerial jobs.
This could suggest work-related stress, low physical activity, and long working hours, were associated with risk of stroke.
Even though the numbers are rising, if you're under 55, your chances of having a stroke are still very low.
Having high blood pressure is the single biggest risk factor for stroke, while diabetes, atrial fibrillation and high cholesterol also increase the risk.
Source: Stroke Association
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