Support Sara's Recuperation

Hi Everyone, I’ve created this page on behalf of Sara’s family to raise money to support them whilst Sara fights hard in hospital to get back to health.

Sara and Dave have recently been blessed with the birth of their baby boy Mason, after 8 long years of trying naturally and a round of IVF their dreams came true. Unfortunately, Mason was born tongue-tied meaning he was only able to be breast fed. Mason had a private surgical appointment to correct it at 5 weeks old. 6 weeks into Sara’s new mum life she became unwell. She was run-down and had earache which she took the usual over the counter medication and continued as normally as she could.

• Friday 11th June – Sara suffered with a severe headache and potential migraine.
• Saturday 12th June – Sara was severely fatigued and lethargic, her headache continued.
• Sunday 13th June – Sara was very weak and slumped over at home with a really high temperature and low blood pressure. Sara’s Husband (Dave) called 111, they told him to take her to A&E at Kingsmill Hospital. She had a blood test and a CT scan but was advised to go home as they couldn’t keep a baby in the hospital due to Coronavirus.
• Monday 14th June – Sara couldn’t move, her vision had started to go, she even started having tingles/pains down her arms. Dave took her back to the hospital where she was quickly admitted and booked in for a lumbar puncture. At this point, they suspected it may be meningitis.
• Tuesday 15th June – Sara had an MRI scan that was pushed through as a priority by an independent company called PALS. Sara’s family organized for this to happen as they weren’t happy with the rapid decline of Sara’s health. This led to them confirming a suspected bleed on the brain and Sara was rushed to Queens Medical in Nottingham for surgery. Surgery No1. – During the first brain surgery they removed a small section of skull which was when they found an infection on Sara’s brain and it was very aggressive. The surgeon cleared out as much as he could. It turns out it wasn’t a bleed showing on the MRI it was this infection.
• Wednesday 16th June – After surgery Sara was put on an antibiotic drip to extinguish any potential left-over infection. Her temperature had stabilized, and the surgeon was happy with the outcome. She was placed on the Intensive Care Unit and had 2, round the clock nurses.
• Thursday 17th June – Sara’s brain had started to swell again, she was not responding well to a light being shone in her eyes, so the nurses where on high alert.
• Friday 18th June – Sara was rushed into Surgery No2. The infection came back, and they had to remove a large section of skull to ensure they could clear it all out.

After the surgery Sara spent the next 3 days (>21st June) slowly coming out of an induced coma. When she came around, it revealed that she had no movement in her left-hand side – face, arm, hand, leg. At this point it was unclear if she had suffered a stroke or if it was a repercussion from the infection.

• 21st > 24th June – After 6 days in total in the ICU unit Sara had made progressions on her recovery, Sara was then moved to the Neurological Ward so they could focus on her rehabilitation of movement and memory/speech.
• Friday 25th June – Sara had an MRI Scan to check the status of the infection, it hadn’t got any better, but it hadn’t got any worse at this point.
• Saturday 26th June > Friday 2nd July – Sara had multiple physio appointments during this week, it seemed that she was making a good recovery considering the short amount of time she had been in the Neurological Ward. The weekly MRI scan took place on Friday at which point they had expected the infection to have cleared and be heading in the right direction.
• Saturday 3rd July – MRI results where heartbreaking, the infection had once again come back and worse this time. Sara was rushed into Surgery No.3. The infection had now spread from the right-hand side of her brain to the middle.
• Sunday 4th July – After surgery they decided to put a direct line into Sara with antibiotics which would unfortunately make her feel worse before it would make her feel better.
• Monday 5th July > Tuesday 6th July – Sara came around from the surgery well and was very responsive. The hospital did another MRI on Tuesday to check that this new method of antibiotic intake was working.
• Wednesday 7th July > Sunday 11th July – This MRI came back better than the last, the hospital team where pleased with the progress. Sara is currently making great steps to recovery once again and has been moved into her own ward to ensure she is resting to help her body heal.

Thank you for reading Sara's story, we will be posting regular updates as we receive them from the hospital.