My Sister's Story - Paul Collins

My sister had a SAH on the 31st October 2005 and she finally came out of hospital on 23rd December 2006. When she first got poorly we were told that she had “little or no chance” of surviving. She was only 35 when she had it (with a 11 yr old daughter called Chelsey). She spent about 5 months of not being with it at all, but eventually she “came back” to us, and even now she is no where near the person she was but she is getting better. It is amazing what the brain can recover from and I pray that one day she will get back to the “Jacqui” she was. I love her deeply (of course) and she has all my family around her and even her boyfriend had stayed with her and is now looking after her at home full time, with a lot of help from the NHS and social services. It took her just over a year to start speaking again, but know she talks a little and most of the time her words come out right, but when they don’t she just laughs (which is good, as she knows she is getting it wrong and WILL improve on it).

When I look back, to what we were told on the night it happened, she has come on so so so well, and all the bad times we had will hopefully one day be put to one side as we continue to watch her improve.