Woman, 22, reveals bizarre warning sign she experienced before suffering devastating stroke
One woman has shared the bizarre warning symptoms she experienced prior to a devastating stroke that left her unable to walk or speak — and described the moment when she felt her brain “explode.”
Morgan Bailey, originally from New Jersey but now living in Arizona, was just 22 and working at a school when she started experiencing worrying symptoms, including an “excruciating” headache and numbness on the right side of her body.
Perhaps most bizarrely, she’d noticed a change in her eyelashes for a few months, where they looked very straight on her right eye — something that’s not medically linked, but which Morgan thinks was a warning sign.
She underwent surgery but remains paralyzed on her right side – which will be a lasting effect of what she went through.
Morgan, now 24, explains: ‘If you had asked me ‘can someone have a stroke at age 22?’ I would have said ‘no’. I had to relearn everything. I had to learn to walk again. I had to relearn how to speak properly. I had to relearn how to write with my left hand.’
Morgan Bailey, originally from New Jersey but now living in Arizona, was only 22 when she suffered a stroke
After suffering a stroke, Morgan underwent surgery, but she remains paralyzed on her right side – which will be a lasting effect of what she went through
Morgan was diagnosed with an arteriovenous malformation (AVM) at age 18 after falling and hitting her head one day at school.
AVMs are abnormal cross-links of blood vessels that can cause irregular connections between the arteries and veins – often developing in the spinal cord and brain.
When she woke up the next day with paralysis on her right side and struggling to walk properly, she went to the hospital and was later told she had an AVM and suffered three brain aneurysms.
Morgan said she was not given any medication or treatment because doctors were “too afraid to touch it” because it was lodged in her thalamus.
She added, “They told me to go home and live life, and I did that for five years.”
In the four years that followed, Morgan was able to lead a normal life with little concern for her condition – until the day of the stroke.
“My life is completely turned upside down,” Morgan told NeedToKnow.co.uk.
“My health was perfect before – I never had any problems.”
On the day of the stroke, as the headaches got worse, she soon found her friend who said she wasn’t feeling well, before feeling like her “brain was going to explode.”
It was the last thing she would remember for a month.
Morgan was rushed to the hospital and remained in ICU for seven weeks while she recovered from the stroke.
When she awoke, she was paralyzed on the right side and had to learn to walk, speak and write again.
Morgan was rushed to the hospital and remained in ICU for seven weeks while she recovered from the stroke
After she had the stroke, Morgan said life will never be the same because it’s been ‘completely turned upside down’
Morgan had been diagnosed with an arteriovenous malformation (AVM) at age 18 after falling and hitting her head one day at school
Morgan said she was not given any medication or treatment because doctors were “too scared to touch it” because it was in her thalamus
Despite the diagnosis, Morgan was able to live a relatively normal life – until she suffered a stroke
A few months before the stroke, Morgan noticed a change in her eyelashes, where they looked very straight on her right eye
On the day of the stroke, as the headaches got worse, she quickly found her friend who said she wasn’t feeling well, before feeling like her “brain exploded”
She said, “I had no idea what this was before it happened.
“I can’t use my right hand, so I’m very thankful for technology and voice-type.”
She underwent brain surgery (a craniotomy) to remove 75 percent of the AVM and received intensive physical and speech therapy after the stroke.
Morgan said, “Mentally, I think I did phenomenally.
“More than half of people with a traumatic brain injury deal with depression, anxiety or stress, but I was super positive.
“Of course there were days when I was sad, but the next day I was positive. I just had to get out of my funk.”
When she awoke after her stroke, she was paralyzed on the right side and had to learn to walk, speak and write again
Morgan, photographed in hospital in July 2021, had to relearn how to walk during her post-stroke hospital stay
She underwent brain surgery (a craniotomy) to remove 75 percent of the AVM, and received intensive physical therapy and speech therapy after the stroke.
After several years in therapy, Morgan now wants to help others who may be in need
But for the young woman, life will never be the same again. She said, “My life is completely turned upside down.
‘Now I no longer want to do what I had planned with my studies.
“I know I want to help people — people who are struggling, who’ve had a stroke, who have AVMs, and more.
“I’m out hiking, I volunteer at the Sedona Heritage Museum, I do yoga and more.
‘I’m glad my life has changed after the stroke.
“Life is much easier now.
“It’s not all this fuss, this go-go-go I’ve been looking for.”
In the future, she hopes to start her own non-profit organization to help people with AVMs
In the future, she hopes to start her own non-profit organization to help people with AVMs.
Morgan added: ‘People can come and relax, have meditation sessions and have healing treatments.
“I think it will be extraordinary.”
But for now, she has a message for everyone – whether they have a health problem or not.
She said, “We must live life, and we must live it to the fullest.
“You never know when someone you love is going to die, when you break up with your boyfriend, when your dog is going to die…
“The moral of the story is that you should live as if no one is watching.”