Health

How brain haemorrhage left man with a five-day memory


Ron has a short term memory of five to seven days (Picture: Ron Gains)

Only a week after Ron and I spoke, he doesn’t remember our conversation.

When I call him again for a catch up, he remembers my voice, asking, ‘Is that Jen?’

Although he remembers we talked, he doesn’t remember the specifics.

Ron Gains had a brain haemorrhage five years ago which left him with severely impaired short term memory. He can remember things clearly up until the day he collapsed at work, but after that things become hazy.

He’s still able to talk in detail about what happened and his operation, but relies on wife Jayne to remind him of what happens day to day.

Ron’s scar after his operation (Picture: Ron Gains)

She takes hundreds of photographs each day to remind him of where he has been and what he has done.

‘I remember things for five to seven days maximum and that unfortunately is my life,’ Ron told Metro.co.uk.

‘It gets to 8pm and I lose track of what I have done, even in the course of the day,’ he said. ‘I say to Jayne, “What did we do today?” I literally can’t remember. She reminds me, and it will come back.’

The only silver lining to it is that he can enjoy books and films again and again, not remembering he has already done so.

Ron said: ‘Dirty Dancing is the perfect example of my memory failure. I watched the film many, many times pre-‘head pop’, so that remains very clear. Then I went to see the live musical show some months ago in Leeds and apparently I loved it, although I can’t remember.

‘But more recently the musical was advertised on the TV and I said to my wife how much I’d love to go and see it one day. I had absolutely no recollection of watching it just a few months before.’

‘I can pick a book off the shelf and Jayne says, “You have finished that one”. I could read it and enjoy it, but within a few days I forget I have even read the book.

Ron Gains with ‘genius’ surgeon Umang Patel (Picture: Ron Gains)

Memory loss also affects Ron’s speech sometimes, when he gets aphasia.

‘Jayne calls it “Ronnisms” – when I have problems remembering the name of something,’ he said.

‘We were driving home one time past a field… I asked, “Is that where the rinky dink dinks are?” In my head, that’s what donkeys were called.

‘Another time we were on the beach and I said to Jayne, “Look at them, they are debt collecting.” I meant metal detecting of course.

‘You do laugh and joke about it because you have to.

Ron had an aneurysm which burst on the wall of an artery, directly above the brain stem.

Two weeks before, he started suffering with painful headaches.

He continued: ‘We all have headaches at times, but mine were horrendous. Jayne said “Go to the doctors”. I said “You don’t go to the doctor for a headache,’ you don’t want to waste anybody’s time.

He ended up going for an eye test, and after being told his prescription was out he accepted that this was the reason for the headaches.

Ron, who started his career as a mechanic and worked his way up to service manager of a BMW dealership, was at work as normal the day he collapsed.

A colleague said he saw Ron one minute and the next lost track of him as he had fallen between two cars.

‘He went back to find me on the floor screaming and holding my head,’ Ron said.

A first aider rushed to help and called an ambulance.

Ron with wife Jayne (Picture: Ron Gains)

After he was given a scan and taken to the Neurology department at Sheffield Hallamshire Hospital, things looked bleak.

‘They basically told Jayne to plan my funeral as there’s nothing they could do,’ Ron said.

‘The loss of blood pressure can cause other organ failure,’ Ron said. ‘Before anymore head work could be considered I had to be transferred to another hospital with a carousel full of wires and tubes connected and I had sections of my large and small intestines removed, an Ileostomy performed and a stoma bag fitted.’

He had to be given an Occipital Arterial Bypass by ‘genius’ surgeon Dr Umang Patel, when the affected artery in the back of his head was bypassed.

After a long recovery, during which Ron suffered a pulmonary embolism and DVTs, he’s now doing much better, with the help of Jayne, who he calls ‘my memory’.

‘I’m on a bucket load of drugs but you’ll never hear me moan because I’m just happy to be alive,’ Ron said.

‘I stagger about a lot and I’ve got no balance. I walk with a stick and I have lots of stomach problems. I have chronic sleep apnoea and use a machine to help me sleep – I call it R2D2.

‘I suffer with a lot of things, but nothing that I moan about, because I’m alive.’

Ron’s aneurysm, initially caused by smoking, exploded in 2013. An estimated one in fifty people have them, but only find out about them when they burst.

He now lives with a perpetual headache, especially if he gets tired or exerts himself.

Fatigue is also a problem – but memory is the thing which has affected Ron’s life since the most.

‘But there are times where I do sit and sob, and I mean sob for England,’ he said. ‘I suffer badly with emotion, particularly when I’m tired.’

Ron, who says he survived because Jayne told him he had to, relies on his wife to pull him through emotionally at these times.

‘When I get fed up and down, Jayne will say: “Ron, but you’re still here”.

Ron is also supported by brain injury charity Headway, who provided him with an ID card to explain his invisible disability.





READ SOURCE

Leave a Reply

This website uses cookies. By continuing to use this site, you accept our use of cookies.