Healthy woman, 22, left paralysed and 'only able to blink' after suffering stroke

An otherwise fit and heathy young woman has urged people to "listen to their body" after she suffered a stroke that left her needing major brain surgery.

Saskia Bishop, 22, had no signs that anything was wrong with her when she visited her grandmother on April 21. However, not long after she felt a pounding headache out of nowhere. The business owner had to go for a lie down when she suddenly lost her speech and was paralysed.

Her only means of communicating was through blinking. Saskia's terrified family rushed her to hospital where doctors found a large blood clot on her brain that had led to a stroke. She was immediately transferred to the intensive care unit where further tests found she had a rare brain condition known as an arteriovenous malformation (AVM).

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An AVM is a tangle of blood vessels in the brain or on the brain surface, which causes blood to bypass the usual network of vessels and flows directly from arteries to veins. Saskia underwent a seven-hour surgery to remove the AVM and surrounding blood clot in her brain.

After losing her speech for two weeks, Saskia has luckily made a recovery but is still suffering some long-term effects from her life-threatening condition. Now, she wants to warn others about the importance of listening to their body.

Saskia, who lives in Gloucester, said: "I had absolutely no symptoms or changes in my health. There was literally nothing to suggest it was going to happen until the day that it happened.

"I had just arrived at my grandma's and got a blistering pain in my head. It hit me like a sharp pain and then I could almost hear a flat line beeping in my head. It was so consuming, I couldn't think about anything else.

"My dad told me to go lie down and I immediately threw up. I could basically only blink. I couldn't really move. If I stood up, I would've just collapsed.

"I knew that something wasn't right but as soon as my speech started to go, I couldn't communicate that with anyone." Her dad rushed his daughter to Gloucester Royal Hospital's A&E before she was transferred to Southmead Hospital's ICU in Bristol.

There, Saskia was told she had a significant bleed on her brain, which had caused a stroke, and she would have to undergo a craniotomy.

Saskia was in hospital for two weeks and said her speech gradually returned but is still suffering with fatigue and mobility issues months later. She said: "I'm such a chatterbox I thought nothing is going to stop me from speaking.

"A load of my head is numb now. I get shooting pains where my scar and my whole head aches but other than that I'm very lucky I don't have any other defects.

"When I got my speech back it was gradual. It was frustrating that I couldn't get my point across and sometimes it takes me a while to answer. It's still coming back.

"I've made a strong recovery but if I go long distance, I need a wheelchair. Everyone kept saying I was lucky and I feel grateful I survived and I can walk and talk. It could've been fatal.

"I was born with it. A lot of people go their whole life without knowing. I had no idea I had this. I'm kind of lucky I had it when I did because the recovery is so much easier when you're younger.

"I would say to other people your age doesn't protect you from anything so listen to your body. You know if something is severely wrong."