Ballivor man who nearly died after major stroke to mark first anniversary of life changing event by climbing Carrauntoohil

A YOUNG and healthy Ballivor man has told how he nearly died after suffering a major stroke after a gym session ruptured an artery in his neck.

Dan Higgins (40), describes being in “the wrong place at the right time” after a personal training session where he was performing squats with a sandbag led to a burst artery in his neck. The dad-of-two was admitted to A&E before being rushed to ICU. Just as Dan began to feel like he was on the mend, he suffered a massive stroke just a week later while still in hospital but this time it was a case of being in the right place at right time as medics save his life.

In a cruel twist of fate, the condition Dan was hospitalised with was the same illness that took his father's life in 2012.

To mark the first anniversary since his stroke, the brave Ballivor man is planning to climb Ireland’s highest mountain, Carrauntoohil on 20th April to raise funds for Headway, a charity he says has been a life line over the past year.

“I was doing squats with my personal trainer and where I put the sandbag on my neck, they think it burst an artery,” said Dan

“I wasn't pushing myself exceptionally hard,” he added.

“I had done dozens of these type of sessions but it seemed on that occasion, it just seemed that everything came together.

“That night that I got quite sick and I felt like I was on a boat and the boat was kind of going upside down, so I couldn't walk from the chair in the sitting room to the door because I just had no balance then it disappeared later that night and I went to bed.”

It was his wife Michelle's quick thinking the next morning when Dan began to feel unwell again that helped to save his life.

“My wife called an ambulance the next morning and I was brought to A&E in Mullingar Hospital. That's when they did the CT scan and said that a main artery leading into the brain had split.

“My father had an arterial dissection in 2012 and he died. So I was in the hospital for the same thing that killed him.”

Doctors warned that the blood thinners they were about to administer to Dan to treat the condition could cause the clot to move and sadly in this case, that proved to be true just two days before he was going to be discharged.

Civil Servant Dan was intubated in Mullingar Hospital before being rushed by ambulance to Beaumont for urgent surgery wheresugeons removed the clot in his brain.

“I woke up in the ICU in Beaumont taking the breathing tube out from my throat, it was very surreal,” remembers the stroke survivor.

“I suppose I was lucky enough that I was in the hospital, because if I had been at home, it would have been a different story altogether,” he added.

“They say you have 90 minutes from when you get that onset of symptoms to deal with the clot or the bleed.”

The Ballivor man says the ordeal felt like an out of body experience.

“It didn't seem real and when you're in the hospital, you have that safety net, that comfort of if anything happens to me, I'm in the right place.

“The problem really was when I got home later. I had progressed quite quickly From a physical point of view, I went from not being able to turn over into bed to walking out of hospital within a month. So that was really good.

But then there was the kind of emotional side effects, which is why I'm raising money for Headway, a charity that supports people with brain injuries because when I got home, I kind of found myself constantly worried.

“When I was listening to Headway's podcast it was comforting to hear that this is happening to people all over the country. I know that sounds morbid but it's nice to know you're not alone.”

Dan says he could not have come through this year without the support of his wife Michelle and children Anna (10) and Owen (6)

“I couldn't imagine doing all this kind of stuff by myself. It just would have been too much for me because things I find things really emotional. As consultants have explained to me, my brain is damaged now and there's nothing you can really do about that, but then trying to explain that to people is very hard.

“I'd be one of the people out there that have invisible injuries for example I have a blue badge for the car because some days the exhaustion, just hits from out of nowhere. You'd be fine one minute, the next minute you are floored.

“Once I got home, I almost found myself afraid to leave the house, like I didn't drive for six months after I had the stroke, because I didn't feel confident enough.

“The problem is, when something like that happens to you, people would rather not see it, it's like people are afraid to talk about things.

“I know what it feels like to be dying. It feels horrible. I can understand why people don't want to confront that mortality side of it but it's about looking it in the face as well.

“I said to my consultants when I was in ICU the first time that I'm glad this happened. If it happened in 20 years time, or however many years time, I might not have walked out of the hospital.”

Keen hiker Dan had hoped to climb Carrauntoohil last year to celebrate his 40th birthday but due to those plans being dashed feels positive about embarking on the epic adventure to mark another very different milestone as he explains.

“I had my stroke on April 20th last year. So instead of sitting at home crying, I want to do something more positive, my wife is going to come up with me on day and the kids are going to be down there too so I'm just going to go for it and try to raise as much money for Headway as I can.”