22/09/2022
The morning of Sunday (18/09/22) was the scariest of my life.
I was sitting beside my dad watching tv when I noticed that my dad is not answering my questions.
When I looked at his face, I noticed that the left side of his face was elevated than his right side. Upon further investigation, it appeared that his entire right side of body was paralysed while he was able to wiggle his left hand fingers and left toes.
My dad underwent !
A blood clot entered his left side of the brain and blocked the blood flow to the parts of the brain causing loss of function.
We were lucky that the ambulance came straight away and took him to Princess Alexandra Hospital in Brisbane Metro South Health. After conducting CT scan, the doctors performed a procedure called Endovascular Clot Retrieval (ECR) to remove the clot from his brain.
Alhamdulillah the procedure was super successful and all the functions and memory was restored. Timing was critical in this event and we were lucky to have received the treatment sooner. The doctors found 3 more blood clots in his body (2 around the lungs and one in the leg). They administered blood thinners to dissolve the clots and discharged him on Wednesday. He now needs to take blood thinners for the rest of his life.
My dad is a visitor in Australia so he doesn't have medicare, however, thankfully we had purchased a visitors medical insurance for him which came to our rescue.
Had this occured a month ago when my dad was in Pakistan I am not sure what would have been the outcome.
I am extremely thankful to all the doctors, nurses and paramedics who helped us out during this time of need. I can now appreciate why do you have to wait in the emergency department as the doctors and nurses are busy treating more critical patients.