A teacher who had a stroke at the age of 26 says hospital doctors were “convinced that it was a migraine” and sent her home even though she was not able to see, talk or walk properly.
Lili Vachon, from Manchester, was reading a book when her vision “went sideways” and she lost balance, leading her to “crawl down the hallway” to ask for help from a housemate training to be a nurse.
She told Radio Manchester that, after being taken to Salford Royal hospital, “doctors were convinced that it was a migraine because I was 26”.
A spokeswoman for the hospital said they could not comment on individual patient cases unless a complaint has been formally raised.
Now aged 30, Ms Vachon wants to highlight that strokes, where blood stops flowing to a part of the brain and can be life-threatening, can “happen to anybody at any age and that it doesn’t define who you are”.
“But also on the flip side, it really is a big deal.”
She said: “I couldn’t speak, my face was drooping on both sides, I couldn’t stand up” before paramedics took her to hospital in August 2021.
As coronavirus restrictions remained in place, no one could accompany her in the ambulance or visit her in hospital.
Ms Vachon said: “I wasn’t able to use my phone as I couldn’t use my hands or anything, so I couldn’t contact anybody.
“The only person that knew was my housemate and she wasn’t allowed to come with me.
“I was in the middle of having a stroke and the doctors were convinced that it was a migraine because I was 26.”
‘Blunt’ call
As she was then unaware it was a stroke, she chose to return home although she believes in hindsight the hospital should not have released her as she was “not able to talk properly or see straight or walk properly”.
She started a new job as a teacher soon after but struggled with “cognitive issues”.
The hospital requested her to attend an outpatient appointment for a scan, which she drove to.
“I shouldn’t have been doing that because obviously, I’ve had a stroke but I’m not to know.
“Two weeks after I’ve had the stroke, they ring me up at home and they’re like, oh by the way, you’ve had a stroke – just blunt like that on the phone.
“It wasn’t till I hung up the phone, I burst into tears.”
She said she was later called by a nurse who asked if she could feed and wash herself before being officially discharged.
“That’s all the support I got.”
Ms Vachon said she is “fine” now although her health can “ebb and flow”.
She described strokes as “a life-changing event”, adding: “It is a traumatic brain injury and I’m a completely different person now.
“That’s not necessarily a bad thing – you know, change who you are and make it kind of for the better.”