WHEN Charlotte Wood suddenly started smelling gas in her home, she was convinced there had been a leak.
But the unusual sensation turned out to be an early warning sign of a stroke – even though Charlotte was just 28.
The hairdresser, from Crawley, West Sussex, had just run upstairs to bed when she felt like she'd walked into a "wall of gas".
She said: "It felt like being drunk and stepping outside, when the fresh air suddenly hits you.
“I lost my balance and thought I must have walked into a carbon monoxide leak."
Charlotte called downstairs to her partner Tony Marsh, 28, who had been letting their dog Teddy out into the garden.
He came running up and grabbed their five-year-old son Elliott out of bed as they rushed round to their neighbours.
I couldn’t feel the left side of my face. I could talk, but I was stumbling all over the place
She said: "They called the fire brigade to come and check the house for a carbon monoxide leak, but the firefighters couldn’t find any gas.
“By this time, my face was going numb and I was thinking, ‘I’m having a stroke’, even though everyone was telling me I was wrong.
“I couldn’t feel the left side of my face. I could talk, but I was stumbling all over the place.
“My neighbour gave me a glass of water and on the left-hand side of my mouth it felt boiling hot, while the right-hand side was freezing cold.
“I was confused, because I didn’t know whether she’d given me hot or cold water to drink. It was like I had a hot side and a cold side.”
Looking for signs
She caught herself in a reflection to see if her face had dropped – another sign of a stroke – but it looked normal.
Even so, Tony called for an ambulance, but it took two hours to arrive after she fell ill on November 26, last year.
When medics got there they tested Charlotte and detected some evidence of carbon monoxide contamination, but deemed it too low to be causing her symptoms.
“I told them I was having a stroke, but they kept saying I was too young," she said.
"They thought I had an ear infection, but I'd had one before and it hadn't felt like this.
“I kept asking them if I was doing to die.
"They told me I wasn't, then I remember projectile vomiting all over my neighbour’s doorstep three times, until I was bringing up bile.
“Then all of a sudden my vision went. It was as if I was really, really drunk and the world was spinning.”
It was as if I was really, really drunk and the world was spinning
She was taken to hospital and given a CT scan which confirmed that she had indeed suffered a stroke.
Charlotte said: “I've got a little boy, so it really scares me when I think of what might have happened.
“No one seemed to think it was a stroke, though, because of my age."
But she began to see why it wasn't an obvious diagnosis when she was admitted to a specialist ward where she was the only patient under 50.
Know the signs of a stroke: Act FAST – IF YOU SPOT ONE SIGN DIAL 999
A stroke is a brain attack, and happens when the blood supply to the brain is interrupted.
Blood carries oxygen to the brain, and without it brain cells will begin to die off.
This is what causes the damage to other parts of the body, in stroke victims – for example speech problems or a weakness on one side.
There are two different types of stroke.
An ischaemic stroke is the most common, and is caused by a blockage cutting off the blood supply to the brain.
In contrast a haemorrhagic stroke is caused by bleeding in or around the brain.
The Act FAST campaign asks people to learn the signs someone could be suffering a stroke.
FAST stands for:
– FACE… has the person's face fallen on one side? Can they still smile?
– ARMS… can they raise both their arms and keep them there?
– SPEECH… is their speech slurred?
– TIME… if you spot any single one of these signs it's time to dial 999 straight away
She said: “I was so scared. I had blurred and double vision by this time. I’m quite an anxious person anyway and all I kept saying was, 'Am I going to die?'”
Charlotte was transferred to a stroke rehabilitation unit 10 miles away, where she had to learn to walk again.
She said: “If I tried to walk, I would just fall over to the left side.
“I could speak and understand everyone and my memory was fine, but I couldn’t walk.
"I couldn’t lift my left leg. I was dragging it when I tried to walk.”
Incredibly, after just a week and a half in rehabilitation, doctors allowed Charlotte to spend weekends at home.
“My mum, my brother and my partner all let me lean on them for support, but I was moving a lot more than when I was in the hospital, so I was recovering faster,” she said.
“If Elliott was hungry, I wanted to make his sandwich, so I was forcing myself to move around.
"I was using the kitchen work surfaces to hold myself up and did much better at home, so on December 16 the doctors discharged me.”
Doctors told Charlotte, who went to the gym three or four times a week, that something she had done earlier in the day had damaged a large blood vessel in her neck, affecting the blood supply to her brain.
It is a condition known as cervical artery dissection and is one of the most common causes of stroke in people under 50.
What is cervical artery dissection?
Cervical artery dissection is a condition where you have a tear in the wall of one of the large blood vessels in your neck.
This can cause blood clots in your arteries, which can affect the blood supply to your brain.
It is one of the most common causes of stroke in people under 50.
If you have cervical artery dissection, your symptoms may be very vague.
The symptoms also vary from person to person. They depend how badly the artery has been affected, and whether or not you have a stroke afterwards.
Symptoms may also depend on whether a carotid or vertebral artery is affected.
Some of the main symptoms can include:
- a severe headache
- pain in your face and neck
- problems with your sight, including temporarily losing your sight completely
- migraine symptoms, such as shimmering lights in your vision
- a drooping eyelid, which can be very painful
- a swollen neck
- fainting
- pulsating tinnitus (a rhythmic noise in your ears that often beats in time to your heart)
For more information visit Bupa UK
Charlotte was also told that no one will ever be able to tell her for sure what caused the stroke.
It could have been her gym session earlier in the day, but it could also have been caused simply by picking her little boy up or turning her head awkwardly when driving.
“It had definitely happened earlier that day, even though I never felt a thing,” she said.
“You don’t feel it, because it’s an internal injury, so it’s only when the symptoms start later on that you know something is wrong.”
One small comfort is that this kind of stroke does not leave people at risk of having another.
But learning that something so simple can have such a devastating impact has been less reassuring for Charlotte, who is now well on the way to making a full recovery.
Knowing that she could not work in the run-up to Christmas, which would make money tight, Charlotte's friend set up a GoFundMe page, to help the family financially.
Although she can now walk again, she does so with a limp. She is not currently allowed to drive or return to the gym and still suffers with extreme tiredness and occasional blurred vision.
Charlotte, who is unable to work, said: “If this has taught me anything it is not to take for granted all the stuff I could do before, and I now know that your life can change in a moment.”
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