Helping Berwyn, his Wife & Children

My husband Berwyn is a 30 year old father of 2 boys a 10 year and a 1 year old. Berwyn was at work on Saturday like any day when I received a call at 9:20am from him talking funny saying to come fast to his work as he thinks he is having a stroke. I arrived 5 minutes later and found him distressed and having trouble getting words out and complaining of not feeling his hand, once we left his work in a ambulance he deteriorated very fast with words jumbled and no feeling on left side of his body and had limited speech. We rushed to Middlemore to find his blood pressure hitting 206 (normal 110) and needing a transfer from Middlemore to Auckland hospital for the neurological team on stand by and required 2 ICU nurses to transfer with him as it was assumed due to the blood pressure and stroke like symptoms and a suspected AVM he was most likely going to fall into a coma and require assistance to breathe. We made it to Auckland Hospital 15 minutes later and he was rushed through for an emergency CT this confirmed the suspected AVM which in lame terms is brain aneurysm/bleed ( a tangle of blood vessels in the brain or on its surface bypasses normal brain tissue and directly diverts blood from the arteries to the veins). This caused the arteries to burst which created the stroke and servere brain swelling and complete loss of movement and feeling on his left side from top of forehead to toes. He ended up in the High Dependency Unit to be monitored until they deemed safe to Operate once swelling had decreased as operating on a swollen brain was far too risky and could lead to irreversible damage. Berwyn stayed breathing on his own and could communicate with his right hand to answer some questions but had very bad speech slur and one answer words and was told the next few days are critical. On Monday morning the surgeons said he should be in a better position for brain surgery to remove the bloodcot by Wednesday as the swelling should of decreased by then however later that night he became extremely serious as his pain increased in his head and blood pressure sky rocketed and couldnt be controlled by meds and also started losing consciousness and stopped answering the nurses questions and started vomiting alot and also nerves started twitching from pressure on the skull from the brain so badly that they made an emergency decision to operate as an emergency CT proved his head had way to much pressure from brain swelling that it was a risk to leave as much as it was to operate on It. So the rushed him for emergency surgery which was long 6 hours long and they removed the skull and removed the clot and cleaned out all the blood and sealed the veins and arteries. He had no complications for the op how ever his brain swelled so much it is unknown if the damage is permanent but we will not know until his brain has recovered from the trauma. He currently is still in the HDU in Auckland hospital and still has no control on the left side but he can communicate a bit better but still has speech slurring and trouble stringing sentences .. there is no idea of how long, if or when he will regain the use of his left side and as of Tuesday he was paid his last wages as ACC do not cover this as it is a medical illness that was not caused by work so he not able to return to his employment at this stage. I am struggling to pay his bills as I have to take time off my job to be with him and soon will have to be his caregiver. I need to be there to sign his forms and make decisions on his behalf and stay close to him I have been staying in the city to be there for nurse change over at 7 to hear how his night was and the main docs reports advising next move and scan results every morning as we had just moved to Drury the week before this happened. We are a small family who don't normally accept help but at this time I need to allow and ask for it as it will take less stress of myself so that I can focus in helping him recover on this road ahead of us. so I would just like to say I am grateful for anything we receive and it will be used for bills, petrol, parking, and helping me stay in town which is saving me sitting in traffic for 1.5 hours but also being only short distance to him if he has an emergency or he is distressed and they nurses call me to help to keep him calm so his blood pressure stays down

Please accept my biggest Thank you in advance to those that donate Regards The Berwyn Stanaway Family