Life put on hold after brain haemorrhage

WORKING hard and playing even harder, Eliza Ellerby was a typical student. When she wasn't attending lectures or studying for her history degree, the 21-year-old was busy with her role as chairman of the Edinburgh Charity Fashion Show 2008, playing for the university hockey team or catching up with friends.

Her schedule was jam-packed – just the way she liked it. Then, life as she knew it stopped just over two weeks ago.

"It was just like every other day. I'd been at university in the morning. I had a meeting with the venue about the fashion show and then another meeting for the show to discuss the drinks.

"I started to feel dizzy, but wanted to get through the meeting. I was looking around and the bar started to move. Afterwards, I went to go the bathroom, but I couldn't put one foot in front of the other properly. I had to ask my committee members for help – I could see where I wanted to go, I just couldn't get there."

While her friends laughed it off, Eliza, who lives in the New Town, was becoming increasingly panicked. Twenty minutes later she had become incoherent, confused, her vision had blurred and she couldn't move.

In fact, Eliza was having a potentially fatal brain haemorrhage. Despite being young, fit and healthy, blood was leaking out of vessels into her brain, which could easily have resulted in brain damage or even death.

"I remember being in the car and I knew I was in Queen Street and my flat was in Frederick Street, but I couldn't understand how they would drive me there. It was such a simple drive, but I couldn't work it out."

Even then her friends laughed it off, telling her flatmates that Eliza was drunk. But after they'd carried her up the two flights of stairs, those closest to her knew something was wrong. Then Eliza started to convulse.

"They were really scared," she says, quietly. "I convulsed for 30 seconds and was unconscious afterwards for the same time. I don't remember much"

Her flatmates called the paramedics and Eliza was taken to hospital that evening. But even the doctors didn't know what was wrong. "They suggested my drink might have been spiked as I was so groggy," she recalls.

But her excruciating headache raised alarm bells, and so they ran a CT scan, which revealed the bleeding in the right side of her brain. Eliza was immediately transferred to the neurology unit at the Western General for more tests and scans.

"It was revealed that the brain haemorrhage was a suspected cavernous malformation, which is a group of blood vessels that can bleed at any time," says Eliza. "I asked if my hectic lifestyle was to blame, and I was told no. It could have happened to anyone."

She continues: "They couldn't do a MRI scan until the blood had dispersed, which would have determined how serious it was, and whether I need further treatment.

"I texted my sister, Polly, and told her, but as my parents were on holiday, I asked her not to call them. She called my older brother, Nick, he called my nana and papa who called my parents.

"I told the doctor to tell them not to come home, but he told them to come immediately. At that point no-one knew the full extent so my parents were frightened – especially mum who's a nurse. When she walked into the ward she just burst into tears."

Eliza spent a week in hospital on anti-convulsants, and continued to suffer headaches, poor vision, lack of balance and smaller seizures. She was discharged with her mum as her round-the-clock nurse, and is now having to come to terms with her new life.

"It was a real shock – at the time I was so groggy I didn't really know what was going on, but now it's frightening what could have happened. My whole life is on hold right now. I can't be left alone, I can't really do anything – exercise, go to classes, go out and about. I get tired easily, I need to sleep a lot to let my brain repair itself.

"The blood had affected the signals going into the brain so I feel in a bubble. I felt a burden at first, and it was frustrating not being able to go to the bathroom or shower alone. But I'm making progress. My peripheral vision is still pretty bad. My appetite is a lot less and I still suffer from headaches all the time.

Eliza is also missing out on making all those important memories, having to say no to parties, nights out and spending time with her friends outside her flat. Her studies are currently on hold and she is awaiting an appeal decision which will determine whether she can continue into fourth year or be forced to re-sit her third year. Then there is her future career.

"I'd just been accepted to the Deloitte Student Business Forum in Switzerland in March. I was one of only eight people selected out of the whole of the UK to attend. I want to get into financial services or management consultancy so it would have been a great opportunity, but I had to ring them and tell them I could no longer do it. Because I need to sleep during the day, I get tired easily and I have problems reading, it just wasn't fair on someone else who could can make the most of it."

Eliza also won't be able to enjoy the fruits of her labour as tour coordinator for the hockey team, as the team heads to Amsterdam this month. But most frustrating of all was not being able to complete her duties as chairman of the fashion show, which has, in previous years attracted an array of celebrities including JK Rowling, Sting and Ewan McGregor.

"I'd been working on it since May 2007. It was my baby so it was extremely frustrating to not be able to see it through. I was absolutely gutted. But I made the decision I was still going to attend the show at the weekend as chairman. I was going to be there if it killed me. Literally."

As Eliza talks, the drive to succeed is still there – despite her frail exterior and momentary lapses in memory. While she admits to loving life in Edinburgh, she's decided to return to her parents' home in Wiltshire to get the care she needs. But both Eliza and her mother were so impressed with the care at the Western General, that she will return to the Capital for her MRI scan and any subsequent treatment.

"I'm on anti-convulsants indefinitely, and it all hinges on the MRI scan which they hope to do on March 20. They think it was a relatively small bleed so I'm hoping for a positive outcome. I just want everything to go back to normal. I want my life back."

DEADLY FLAWS
ACCORDING to Headway, the brain injury association, a brain haemorrhage is "bleeding in or around the brain" which can occur following a traumatic brain injury or spontaneously.

A subarachnoid haemorrhage is the most common spontaneous bleed, and at least one in 100 people go about their daily routine unaware they have potentially deadly flaws in the blood vessels of their brain. But of those who do have a defect, only around one in 7000 have a subarachnoid haemorrhage – and it frequently occurs in young adults, with women more commonly affected.

A cavernous malformation is a small round cluster of enlarged blood vessels which resemble a raspberry, vary in size from a few millimetres to a few centimetres, and can be found anywhere within the brain. These malformations affect less than one per cent of the population.