Mum, 36, suffers brain aneurysm on Thomas Cook holiday to Turkey moments before boarding flight home
A BRIT mum is fighting for her life after suffering a brain aneurysm and haemorrhage while waiting to check-in for her flight home from a Thomas Cook family holiday.
Victoria Langfield, 36, had been holidaying in Turkey, with her husband Damian, 38, and their two daughters when she started suffering blinding headaches and nausea on their last day.
Damian, of Halifax in West Yorkshire, said the first sign of her serious condition was when he noticed Victoria shivering under three covers in bed, despite Antalya's 30C heat.
Victoria then lost consciousness at the airport check-in desk and slipped into a coma last Friday.
The family had flown to Turkey on a Thomas Cook holiday - but the firm collapsed after failing to pay the £200million it owed its creditors, leaving 150,000 holidaymakers stranded.
Damian said that because Thomas Cook had gone bust, "we had no rep at the airport.
"I had to run off through the crowd shouting 'doctor, doctor' at the top of my voice.
"We're just lucky we didn't get on that plane.
"The people in the airport were brilliant. A woman from the British Consulate took the girls and helped them into the ambulance while I was tending to Victoria."
After an ambulance took her to Lara Anatolian Hospital in Antalya, medics managed to stabilise her. Scans revealed she had suffered a devastating brain aneurysm - a bulge in a blood vessel, caused by a weakness in the blood vessel wall.
I had to run off through the crowd shouting 'doctor, doctor' at the top of my voice.
Damian Langfield
Having survived 16 hours of surgery, to stop the bleeding on her brain, and reduce swelling, Victoria remains in intensive care and is expected to stay in hospital for at least a fortnight.
Doctors said they were amazed by the mum's resilience, and told the worried family that only three per cent of brain aneurysm victims arrive alive at hospital in such emergency situations.
Once Victoria's strong enough, she will fly back to the UK in an air ambulance at low altitude - stopping every hour to prevent further stress to her brain.
Although the aneurysm could not have been prevented, Damian is hoping to raise awareness of the warning signs to help people seek medical attention and save lives.
"SUPER-HUMAN"
He said: "We knew she was strong, but to get through what's she been through so far, it's almost super-human.
"It's the biggest brain operation the surgeons have ever done.
"They're never seen anyone get through an operation like that so well.
"The fact she is now squeezing my hand and can hear us is nothing short of a miracle. It's incredible."
Damian warned that "it doesn't matter how old or healthy you are, whether you're on the beach in the morning or the pool in the afternoon.
"This can happen if you've just had a shower or been out for tea - at any time - and I want to prevent more people going through this."
PAIN AND NAUSEA
On the last day of the holiday, Victoria began to suffer pain at the back of her head and neck, as well as nausea.
The family was forced to turn off the lights in the hotel room because it was making her head worse.
As they returned to the airport for their flight home, Victoria began to vomit and her personality changed, making her appear distant.
But it wasn't until they were preparing to check-in that she lost consciousness and Damian was unable to wake her.
Damian explained: "Normally she would get headaches in the front of the head, being an office worker, but she had pain on the back of the neck and back of the head."
He admitted finding it difficult seeing his wife on "different tubes and monitors.
"We need to get to day 15 without any vessel spasms on the brain. That's the biggest risk now."
But he praised hospital staff, and people in Turkey for helping the family, along with Jet2 for being "great" after flying "relatives over here and my father and daughters back home".
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Victoria's cousin's husband Anil Sharma has set up a to help pay for apartment rental and living costs while Damian and his family travel to and from hospital each day.
The page has raised more than £7,000 so far, with Damian hoping the funds will also help when they return home, for his wife's rehabilitation.
The fundraising page explains that "the insurance claim is in progress, and Victoria's treatment is covered".
Damian said: "We've got the best family and best friends. We're so very lucky.
"Between us, as horrible as it's been, we've stuck together. I wouldn't have been able to cope without them."
What is a brain aneurysm?
An aneurysm is a bulge in a blood vessel caused by a weakness in the blood vessel wall, usually where it branches, says the NHS.
As blood passes through the weakened blood vessel, the blood pressure causes a small area to bulge outwards like a balloon.
Aneurysms can develop in any blood vessel in the body, but the two most common places are:
- The artery that transports blood away from the heart to the rest of the body (the abdominal aorta)
- The brain
Most brain aneurysms only cause noticeable symptoms if they burst.
This leads to an extremely serious condition known as a subarachnoid haemorrhage, where bleeding caused by the ruptured aneurysm can cause extensive brain damage and symptoms.
Symptoms include:
- A sudden agonising headache – it's been described as a "thunderclap headache", similar to a sudden hit on the head, resulting in a blinding pain unlike anything experienced before
- A stiff neck
- Sickness and vomiting
- Pain on looking at light
About three-in-five people who have a subarachnoid haemorrhage die within two weeks.
Half of those who survive are left with severe brain damage and disability, the NHS adds.
