A mother-of-two has revealed how her family’s life changed after her husband suffered a brain injury.
Kirsten and Dan got married in 2005 after meeting in 2003 and went on to have two children – 12-year-old Ethan and 10-year-old Alex.
Everything was perfect until July 19, 2016.
Dan, who worked in HR, collapsed at work on July 19, 2016, and was rushed to a hospital in Solihull by her colleagues.
Kirsten was told to arrive at the hospital and when she did, she found Dan hooked up to countless machines.
She said: “Doctors explained that he had an undetected autoimmune disorder called antiphospholipid syndrome (APS), which had caused a blood clot to form in his heart.”
Kirsten was told Dan’s chances of survival were very low and the family was told to say goodbye to him.
Kirsten thought she would never see him again but miraculously, Dan survived.
However, he suffered a brain injury and his memory had been badly affected.
He could recognize his family but had to go to a rehab center for a month for learning to walk, talk and eat again.
When he returned home from the rehab center, the family finally learned their lives had changed after the tragic incident.
Kirsten, who works as a travel consultant from her home, said: “I effectively became his nurse, giving him his medication, feeding him, taking him to the loo, bathing and dressing him, while also looking after the kids.”
“Things got a bit easier as Dan grew stronger and less reliant on me.”
Then, he started ordering things online and then forgetting he had ordered them.
In December 2016, he ordered more than £3,000 worth of presents for his sons but had no memory of ordering them.
Kirsten said: “We couldn’t afford them, but there was no point in being angry at my husband Dan for ordering them, as he’d have absolutely no recollection of doing it.”
Kirsten says he orders expensive things every now and then, forgets Valentine’s Day and birthdays, and never tells her he loves her that leaves her heartbroken.
She said it has been four years and Dan has become far more independent but he has become moodier and more detached.
Kirsten says: “It does feel like I now have three children sometimes. I know of other women who have left a partner with a brain injury, and in all honesty, I don’t blame them.”
Despite all this, she says she will never leave Dan.
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