Real Life Stories: “I went to the hospital for a bad headache…”
- Diana Campbell
- Oct 9, 2023
- 2 min read
Brian had a brain haemorrhage at 32; “ I only went to the hospital for a bad headache”, he told NKMT.
But that bad headache turned out to be an AVM (Arteriovenous malformation) rupture in the left cerebellum.
In an AVM, the blood vessels carrying blood to and from the brain grow together in a tangle, instead of linking to the full network of smaller blood vessels in the brain. An AVM can reduce blood flow and compress the surrounding brain tissue. Inside the AVM, blood flows at high pressure into weak blood vessels, which can sometimes lead to bleeding.
To find out more about AVM rupture, check out our ‘About Brain Haemorrhage’ page.
The AVM rupture caused a haemorrhagic stroke in the subarachnoid left cerebellum (This is when there is bleeding on the surface of the brain, rather than within the brain).
Through all of this, Brian completely lost consciousness, but once regained, his life had completely changed.
“Once I regained consciousness I had a lot of deficits to work on.”
He lost a lot of strength and control and struggled to know what to do to pick his life back up or where to turn to find out information that could help him.
We asked Brain, how did you process all of this and find the strength, physically and emotionally to move forward?
“Physical Therapy has helped me hugely to regain some of my strength and control. I still have to work on that a lot, but there is progress. ”
I also have found social media and the internet really helped to find out more information which has helped me, and also to find support to help me through emotionally.
Brain Willis - Brain Haemorrhage Hero
