STEVE'S BRAIN SURGERY LIFESAVER

BASH VICTIM RUSHED INTO HOSPITAL

STEVE Edmondstone thought he’d gotten the all-clear after a thuggish assault outside a Toowoomba hotel forced him into emergency surgery last month.

Left bleeding on the footpath outside the Wilsonton Hotel the night of Friday, March 16, Mr Edmondstone was saved by two strangers and rushed to a Brisbane hospital.

The callous bashing left him with a 12mm brain bleed for which he underwent surgery at the Princess Alexandra Hospital the next morning.

After a handful of clear CT scans, Mr Edmondstone, 48, was sent home to recover, the occasional dizzy spell a reminder of the attack.

But when the pressure in his head built to the point it felt “like something had run over my head”, Mr Edmondstone went back to the PA Hospital on Saturday afternoon.

Doctors discovered he had developed another brain bleed and rushed him into surgery that night, drilling a hole in his skull to relieve the pressure and save his life.

“The doctors said it was a pretty major surgery,” Mr Edmondstone told The Chronicle from his hospital bed.

“The swelling has gone down now and I had a CT scan on Sunday which came back a bit clearer.”

He hopes more scans this morning will give him the allclear so he can return home to Toowoomba and recuperate.

But the lingering effects of the surgery means Mr Edmondstone won’t be able to drive a car for at least a month, and longer for commercial vehicles.

For the bobcat driver by trade, it means at least three months out of work.

Mr Edmondstone said recovery was his priority, and hopes today’s CT scan will give him the all-clear to return home, but if the bleed persists, he is looking at a prolonged stay in Brisbane away from family.

The vicious assault remains an open investigation with police appealing for any witnesses to come forward.

Information can be reported anonymously to Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000.