The wife of a young man who was given a one per cent chance of survival after suffering a massive stroke has told of his miracle journey towards recovery.
A year ago, Emma Moore had to tell her three children their dad Kevin was probably going to die after he had a stroke at the age of 40.
But he fought his way back from death’s door – and is now in a wheelchair needing round-the-clock care.
Emma, from Co Wicklow, is sleeping on a mattress on the floor beside him as she tries to raise much-needed funds to renovate the house for his needs.
The 37-year-old said Kevin was very fit and walked every day before having the stroke but had been complaining of a headache in the days beforehand.
She told the Irish Sunday Mirror: “Kevin had been suffering with headaches for a few months and went to the doctor and he was told that it was probably his sinuses.
“On January 5 last year he had a massive stroke, it was a really deep bleed in the brain.
“He had seven-hour surgery and was in an induced coma then for a few days. But then the pressure on his brain kept going up.
“We weren’t allowed to talk or sing to him as if it stimulated too much it would add more pressure. He had a craniotomy which helped.
“After a few days he wasn’t coming out of his coma and his consultant told us that the bleed was just too deep and that the chance of survival was less than 1%.
“They said that he was either going to pass away from his organs failing or if he did come out of the coma was going to be in a vegetative state.
“That went on for three weeks.
“We were by his bedside the whole time.
“Family and friends were coming in and saying their goodbyes to him.”
Emma said the hardest thing for her was telling her children Toby, 16, Kealen, 11, and 10-year-old Robyn.
She added: “I had to tell the kids that their dad was probably going to pass away and they were absolutely devastated.
“It was terrible. I could literally hear their hearts break, it was devastating.
“But we kept going and never gave up hope.”
Emma said that as time went on Kevin started showing small signs of improvement and was moved from Dublin’s Beaumont Hospital to St James’s Hospital.
She went on: “He gave me the slightest wink one day, ever so slight.
“From then on he started to gradually improve. He was doing great and then Covid hit and nobody was able to visit him and he started getting very depressed.
“They eventually let me go in to see him and he started to come out of his depression and was allowed home then last August.
“He started doing well, then we were involved in a car accident which saw him breaking his left leg, which is his weaker side.
“When he broke his leg it set him back months.”
Friends have set up a GoFundMe page to help the family raise funds to renovate the house and make it wheelchair accessible.
Emma said: “At the moment we are sleeping in the sitting room.
“He is on a hospital bed beside the window and I’m on a mattress beside him on the ground. It’s tough.”
In a warning to others Emma added: “If you are having headaches and know something is wrong go to your GP and do not take no for an answer.”
If you would like to donate to the fund, visit www.gofundme.com/f/m8ntgv-bring-kev-home
.png?w=600)
