Portrait: Mererid
I was laughing and joking until I suddenly screamed and slowly collapsed to the floor. The stage manager came rushing in and got me to repeat my name and say where I was, but I became unresponsive.
A little bit about Mererid
My name is Mererid, but everyone calls me Mez. I’m 28 years old and I live in a small town in Wales, UK. My story begins in Dubai, when I was 26 years old. I had been working in Dubai as a performer for three years, and in the 4th year, I got promoted to team leader of my group. One day I went for breakfast, where I was discussing all my hopes and dreams with my friend. Afterwards, I walked to their car ready to get a lift back to my accommodation.
Here is when my memory goes blank
Things took a turn for the worst
Apparently, I went back to my accommodation, got the bus to work and did my team leader duties. I was laughing and joking until I suddenly screamed and slowly collapsed to the floor. The stage manager came rushing in and got me to repeat my name and say where I was, but I became unresponsive. They described that the life was draining out of me and I turned grey all over. The light behind my eyes vanished and I was sweating profusely.
Before they knew it, I was put in an ambulance and on the way to the hospital. No one knew what was going on. Apparently there was a doctor/surgeon on call who said he thought I had a ruptured aneurysm from an arteriovenous malformation (AVM for short). My company manager had to contact my next of kin to let them know what had happened to me, and asked if they could fly out.
My sister was my next of kin, so she had to organise a PCR F test to be able to get on the plane (as it was still the height of COVID-19). Her results came back and they were positive. So, she couldn’t fly out to see me and it was up to my brother to fly out instead. He took the three-hour rapid COVID-19 test before the flight. Thankfully, it was negative. By this point, things moved very quickly. He came to visit right away, and when he arrived at the hospital, he got a better understanding of my health and was shown scans of my AVM that was deep in my brain (the thalamus). He was told that an aneurysm had burst and that’s why I collapsed and was in pain.
Needing an operation to save my life
When my brother visited me in hospital, I would always complain of a headache, so he consented for me to have a drain put in. Then on another day, my brother and my sister had a meeting on Skype with the neurosurgeon, where they told my family they needed to operate and described how they were going to do it. If they didn’t operate, it could have been fatal. My brother and sister accepted this, and it then became a waiting game for an operation.
Waking up from life-saving surgery
When I came out of surgery, they said they stopped another aneurysm from bursting and managed to embolize the original aneurysm and partially embolize the AVM. Every day was different from the surgery, but when my sister came to visit, I moved out of the critical care ward. Things were finally looking up. I had to wait for the drain in my head to clear so they could make plans to get me back to the UK.
Flying back to the UK for treatment
I was in Dubai hospital for five weeks, then flown back to the UK where I had to go through A&E to get an available bed in the hospital. I was then isolated for two weeks, so I spent Christmas alone. Just before the New Year was when I got moved to the stroke ward. I was there for seven months before I got discharged into my own flat.
My recovery and where I am today
This is where the hard work started. I was still in a wheelchair but I was determined to walk. I had physiotherapy, occupational therapy, counselling, hydrotherapy—you name it, I had it.
Now just two years later, I’m living a relatively “normal” life. I have right-side weakness, I have little to no feeling in my right side, double vision and hearing problems. None of these side effects will ever stop me. I’ve been given another chance at life and I’m grabbing it with both hands. I’m so thankful for life, and I’m grateful for my strength and resilience that have kept me going.