The last thing this Aussie mum expected was a stroke.
Adelaide mum Darlene was just 44 when she suffered a stroke out of the blue
One morning nine years ago, Darlene Mcleod walked downstairs to say good morning to her family and suddenly collapsed on the kitchen floor.
“Mum, you’re so silly,” she vaguely remembers hearing her then nine-year-old daughter Sarah say as she lost consciousness.
But it wasn’t a practical joke. As Darlene drifted in and out of consciousness, unable to speak or move her right side, her husband instinctively knew she was having a stroke and called for help. In a matter of hours, the fit and healthy 44-year-old was deteriorating on the operating table of Royal Adelaide Hospital.
“The doctors found a hole in my heart and said that was the reason for the stroke,” Darlene says. “If I didn’t have that, the clot would have dissipated in my lungs, but instead it raced up into my brain.
“They tried traditional treatment methods to dissolve it, but it was too large and nothing was working,” Darlene recalls.
Warned she might not make it through the night, Darlene’s husband, John, now 66, and three children, Ryan, Benjamin and Sarah, sat by her bed, held her hand and sadly said goodbye to the mother they hadn’t even known was sick.
Just when they’d lost all hope, one of the doctors suggested endovascular clot retrieval treatment – an experimental procedure to mechanically remove the clot – an operation that was still in its trial stages.
“The procedure was extremely new and doctors were not yet able to tell if it was going to do more harm than good,” she says. “They told my husband it was risky and could make things worse, bring on another stroke, or even kill me,” Darlene says.
“He was petrified, but when the doctor said he would go ahead with the treatment if his wife was dying, my husband put his faith in his hands. I can’t imagine how hard that must have been for him.”
Fortunately, the operation was a success but the road to recovery was long, with Darlene spending two weeks in hospital and six months in rehabilitation.
Now 52 and fit as a fiddle, Darlene focuses on the positives, cherishing every minute she spends with her family and friends. And in the hope of inspiring and guiding others, she’s now completing a counselling course.
“In the last seven years I’ve learnt that life is fragile, but so very beautiful. I am so fortunate to be here, and I want to inspire and show people who are in similar situations things can get better and there’s a light at the end of the tunnel,” she says.
‘The procedure was new… they told my husband it was risky’
The Stroke Foundation and Priceline Pharmacies are offering stroke risk checks in store until June 16.