James Blair didn't expect to be in intensive care recovering from a brain aneurysm at age 21.
He had recently completed a building apprenticeship and was enjoying life with his girlfriend Mikayla.
But on the June long weekend, his dad Damian Blair found him slumped against the wall of the family's front entry at Balcolyn in Lake Macquarie.
James' mum Theresa Blair said it had been a rough few weeks for the family.
"I wouldn't wish this upon anybody," she said.
James has two younger siblings, Tiana and Lucas.
Mrs Blair said it was hard to believe her eldest son had become so seriously unwell.
"He's so young," she said.
"I'm blown away by how brave he is. He kept saying it's going to take more than this to knock me down."
A GoFundMe titled, "Please help James on his road to recovery", will go towards his rehabilitation.
James has a long road ahead.
"All going well, the doctors are confident he'll go back to a normal life with no limitations," Mrs Blair said.
He was initially taken to Wyong Hospital by ambulance when he had the aneurysm on June 7.
A CT scan showed he had a brain bleed, so he was taken by road to Royal North Shore Hospital, which has leading neurosurgeons.
James had surgery the following morning.
"It's been a mad few weeks, going backwards and forwards to the hospital every day," Mrs Blair said.
"We were constantly worried about all the risks associated with an aneurysm."
She said her son was "one of the strongest people I know".
"Even the nursing staff said how stoic he's been. He doesn't complain. He isn't one to draw attention to himself.
"He doesn't say his head is hurting. He had a headache for the first 14 days.
"They had to keep asking him 'what's your pain like' to give him medication. He has a very high pain threshold."
Doctors allowed James to go home at the weekend, which brought great relief to the family.
His parents bought him a kelpie puppy.
"Dogs are the best therapy," Mrs Blair said.
James remembers everything leading up to the aneurysm.
"He passed out, but before that he felt a little bit dizzy. When he came to, he had a pounding headache at the back of his head. Prior to that he had nothing," Mrs Blair said.
"We've spoken to the doctors about why this would happen, but they basically just said he's been dealt a bad hand and there's no reason why."
During surgery, doctors "drilled through the skull and clamped the aneurysm".
"For the next seven days, they monitored him very closely as he was at risk of another brain bleed, seizure or stroke," Mrs Blair said.
"He was on medication to keep his blood pressure in a tight window of 120 to 150. That was to relieve the pressure in the brain.
"After seven days, the neuro-intervention team did an angiogram to look at the vessels and arteries in the brain."
James hadn't been showing symptoms for anything further going wrong in his brain.
"But the angiogram showed he was having bad spasms in a few vessels, more than what they thought," Mrs Blair said.
The angiogram enabled doctors to treat the spasms with medication. On the fourth day of this treatment, the spasms eased.
Mrs Blair said this kind of intervention, with the angiograms, was only done at Royal North Shore.
"We're so grateful that happened," she said.
