Mum-of-three Natalie Hood was at home folding washing and listening to the radio when, she says, she felt ‘like someone had hit her with a baseball bat over the head’.
The sudden severe headache persisted and Natalie was checked out by a doctor and advised to take paracetamol.
But the 43-year-old continued to feel unwell and struggled to get out of bed that weekend.
And within minutes of calling an out-of-hours doctor for advice, she was rushed to hospital by ambulance for a CT scan.
That weekend in September 2019 was the beginning of a series of health battles for Natalie, who was born in Dundee and grew up in Montrose.
Including being given a one in eight chance of survival.
Here, the radio presenter shares her remarkable recovery story – and tells how it changed her.
‘It was a total shock’
The CT scan revealed Natalie had suffered a subarachnoid haemorrhage. It was caused by bleeding on the surface of the brain, which can be fatal.
“Everything really moved quickly from then,” Natalie explains. “I felt sheer panic – it was a total shock.”
Natalie needed emergency surgery and was taken to the Western General Hospital in Edinburgh where surgeons carried out a procedure to stem the bleeding.
She spent time recovering in hospital. But just weeks after going home, she suffered a stroke while waiting to see a doctor and was only saved by the swift actions of a GP.
“I was only two weeks out of hospital and I just didn’t feel great.
“A doctor asked me to stand up and as soon as I stood my whole left-hand side had gone,” says Natalie.
“We didn’t think that I was going to make a comeback from that at all.”
The stroke left her with sixth nerve palsy, a disorder that affects eye movement and causes sight loss.
Natalie, who has three sons, had to attend regular hospital appointments for check-ups and take medication every few hours to help the blood flow more easily in her brain.
Alarms for medicine
Alarms had to be set to remind her throughout the day and to wake her up to take medicine during the night.
Then, in December 2019, an MRI scan picked up an aneurysm – a bulging blood vessel – on the left-hand side of her brain.
It was a serious condition which could lead to a fatal stroke if it ruptured.
Rushed to the same hospital in Edinburgh again for further surgery, Natalie this time had stents fitted in her brain.
‘Lucky to be alive’
“There was a one in eight chance of surviving. So I can’t tell you how lucky I’ve been and how much it’s changed my life,” she says.
Natalie was given the all-clear a few weeks ago, though still suffers migraines.
“Sometimes I really think to myself I need to get over this now,” she says. “But it’s such a huge thing to have happened.
While shielding during the pandemic she was supported by friends at Station House Media Unit (shmu). She completed a journalism course and gained a radio qualification through the charity.
Natalie, who now lives in Aberdeen, is determined to make as much as she can of the future after surviving the life-threatening conditions.
Looking to the future
She is studying photography and sound engineering at college.
“You don’t take life for granted quite so much when something like this happens,” she says.
“It shows how quickly our lives can be over and we don’t give any thought. I think it made me change my goals and I think that’s OK now.
“I don’t know what the future holds, but do any of us?”
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For more information on the signs of stroke and click here.
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