‘A HEAD INJURY AT 21 ALMOST KILLED ME, BUT THEN I WAS GIVEN A DEVASTATING DIAGNOSIS’
WHEN Caryl Davies was travelling in Australia at the age of 21, she had no idea a nasty accident would change her life forever. She was just leaving her hostel when she fainted, hit her head, and was left with a subdural haematoma – a bleed between the brain and the skull.
“If I wasn’t opposite the hospital at the time, I would have died,” the now 40-year-old, from Llanarth, explained.
When she came around from her life-saving surgery at the hospital, doctors told Caryl she was going to be fine, but she needed to take her liver medication.
Confused, Caryl told them she wasn’t on any liver medication and that’s when she discovered she had advanced liver disease.
“Even though I hit my head, they tested me for everything,” Caryl explained.
“They told me I had liver disease, really advanced liver disease, and I didn’t know until then.
Caryl was diagnosed with autoimmune hepatitis, which essentially means her body’s immune system attacked her liver, resulting in the liver damage.
Looking back, Caryl said what could have been perceived as symptoms of liver disease prior to her diagnosis, she just brushed off as “this was what it was like”.
Caryl explained she often felt “rubbish” or “poorly” but she believed it was normal.
When she returned to the UK, she was put on medication and managed the condition for almost two decades.
Caryl said that for the first few years, she would experience short bouts of pain which would result in a hospital visit where she would be treated with IV fluids, but eventually she learned to manage the pain at home, until she became severely ill in January 2023.
She developed a really bad infection and her kidneys began to fail and she needed urgent surgery.
Following that, her platelets were extremely low, so low in fact she would not have even been considered for a transplant at that point.
“I thought that was it to be honest,” she explained.
Caryl spent weeks in hospital, and was transferred to The Royal Free Hospital near her home in London, where her platelets were eventually restored to a level where she could be considered for a liver transplant and from there she was added to the list.
“I had been waiting for a year, I kind of just gave up, I was feeling so rough,” she said.
Caryl even missed her brother’s wedding in December as she didn’t want to risk missing out on a liver if she got the call.
She said she was included in the entire day with the use of a tripod and video call, and was shown about by various people throughout the day.
“I’ve told them we are doing it all again when I’m better,” she joked.
“Then, the end of January I got a call, I prepared myself for coming back home but it all went smoothly, really quickly.
“Between getting told I was having the transplant to being in surgery it was about five minutes.
“I am so eternally grateful, it is just such a strange feeling, I can feel my liver beating and I know it is not mine, and I am so grateful for it.”
Upon waking up from surgery, Caryl said she instantly felt better and stronger, despite the pain she was in following the recovery.
She is still living in London and has been home from hospital for two weeks, following the operation six weeks ago.
Her parents have been travelling back and forth from Wales to care for her while she stays away from her partner and young daughter, who is about to turn two.
Caryl explained she desperately missed her daughter but is taking the time to recover and protect her immune system in the early weeks from the operation.
Before she became ill last year, Caryl carried out a range of work relating to supporting high streets, and is hopeful she can return to it in the next six months, saying she was “excited” to do so.
In the meantime, as she is unable to work, her friends have set up a fundraiser to support her financially through her recovery.