11 June 2023 , 23:19
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A healthy 22-year-old woman felt like she’d “pulled a muscle” before she lost use of her arms and legs as result of a rare stroke.
Daisy Vass had been at a friend’s 21st birthday party when she began feeling a tightness around her chest.
The young woman from Uxbridge just assumed she had pulled a muscle and thought little else of it.
Even the next day, when she woke up and it was still hurting she didn’t consider it to be anything seriously wrong.
But she ended up losing use of her limbs after it turns out she suffered a rare stroke.
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Now she's looking to fundraise for life after hospital and raise awareness of her condition on social media.
The healthy 22-year-old thought she had just pulled a muscle at first (Facundo Arrizabalaga)Speaking to MyLondon she said: "On the Friday during the day I had a pain in my right shoulder, I just thought 'oh I’ve pulled a muscle' and didn’t think anything of it. On Saturday I woke up and it was still hurting. But I just put some Voltarol on it and hoped for the best.
"We got to my friend’s house at around 4, and everything was fine, and then at seven, I had this pain that went all the way around my torso. It was like someone had got a belt and really tightened it as tight as they possibly could.
"It's hard to describe, you know when something is so painful it completely takes your breath away?
"So I said to my partner at the time, ‘something’s not right, I don’t feel good, something’s really wrong here’, and then my left arm completely seized up."
After initially worrying she was having a heart attack, Daisy quickly phoned 111, who scheduled an appointment for her at the hospital that evening.
At first, as her symptoms worsened, Daisy was worried she was having a heart attack (Facundo Arrizabalaga)By this time her other arm had also seized up, but she was still able to walk with assistance. Several hours later she was "completely paralysed".
Remembering the ordeal Daisy said: "I couldn't move my legs, arms, upper body, everything, it was very, very scary."
When a paramedic eventually arrived, tests showed Daisy's vitals - including heart rate, blood pressure, and blood sugar - were all normal, leaving him baffled as he asked whether she could be having an anxiety attack.
With no history of anxiety though, Daisy said this was unlikely, and soon an ambulance took her to Hillingdon Hospital. "It took four of them to get me up, they’d never experienced anything like it before." Daisy said.
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After numerous CT scans, MRI scans and tests, doctors finally worked out days later that she had suffered a spinal cord stroke, or infarction, an extremely rare form that accounts for just over 1 per cent of all strokes.
Doctors were eventually able to figure out that Daisy had suffered a spinal cord stroke (Facundo Arrizabalaga)Daisy's mum Jane Pargeter explained: "Daisy actually had several blood clots in her lungs, which we knew nothing about. They haven’t come to the conclusion yet but these clots somehow travelled from her lungs to her spine and cut the oxygen to cause the infarct."
Now, six weeks on from the life-changing event, Daisy is beginning to regain feeling in her arms and hands, but has seen little progress elsewhere, with no movement at all in her legs.
Referencing the chances of recovery, she said: "They’ve said the likelihood of a full recovery is very unlikely. But that could mean anything, it could mean just sensation, or never being able to walk again, or just not being able to use my left arm, so we just don’t know yet.
"It’s still quite early days, I have feeling in my feet and legs at certain points but absolutely no movement in them.
"You just never expect at 22 years old to be sat here being told you’ve got multiple blood clots in your lungs and you’ve had a spinal cord stroke it’s just not something that happens."
Moving forward, Daisy is determined to be as optimistic as possible but admitted there are some “horrible days” where she can go to a “really dark place”.
But determined to have “no bad vibes” Daisy has taken to social media to spread awareness of spinal cord strokes.
Alongside her TikTok account, Daisy and her mum have set up a fundraiser to help towards the costs of her needs when she leaves hospital and the costs of rehabilitation too.
Click here to visit the fundraising page or here for her TikTok.