A Welsh woman who collapsed without warning while working in Dubai aged 26 woke up in intensive care after a life-threatening stroke and brain bleed, then spent months relearning to walk
A British woman who collapsed suddenly while working in Dubai had to relearn to walk after suffering a life-threatening stroke and brain bleed aged just 26.
Mez Olivia, 30, from Lampeter, Wales, says she had no symptoms before collapsing at work and waking up days later in intensive care. She was left unable to feel the right side of her body and had to relearn to walk for six months recovering in the UK.
The social media manager, who is still undergoing radiotherapy, said: “One minute I was laughing with everyone and the next I screamed and collapsed. I had breakfast as normal that morning.
“There were no signs anything was wrong. My memory just stops.”
Colleagues rushed to help after she fell unconscious on November 16, 2021. She said: “My co-worker caught my head and my manager put me in the recovery position and called an ambulance.
“It looked like I had died, so everyone was in complete shock.” Doctors discovered Mez had suffered a brain haemorrhage caused by an arteriovenous malformation (AVM) – a tangle of abnormal blood vessels in the brain.
She spent 11 days in intensive care and underwent emergency treatment after doctors warned her family that without intervention she would die. Because of Covid restrictions, her sister was unable to travel to Dubai to provide consent for surgery after her test came back positive.
Her father and brother had to make the difficult decision to join her. Mez said: “They were told it was life or death.
“If I didn’t have the operation, I would die, but I needed written consent to go through with it.” Doctors carried out an embolization procedure, threading instruments through an artery in her groin to block the abnormal blood vessels causing the bleed.
Much of her time in hospital remains a blank. She said: “It’s two weeks of my life that I will never get back because I can’t remember it.
“I had a drain in my brain and I don’t think I realised how ill I was. I remember my sister telling me to be careful not to hurt my right side when I was lying down and I said, ‘I don’t have a right side.’
“I couldn’t feel it.” After stabilising in Dubai, Mez was flown back to the UK in December 2021 as her insurance coverage was running out.
She spent Christmas Day alone in hospital isolation before being transferred from Heathrow directly to Glangwili Hospital in Carmarthen, where she began rehabilitation. Mez said: “My dad had to pay for a taxi from Heathrow, London where I landed, all the way to west Wales.
“Everyday was the same. I had hydrotherapy, physiotherapy and had to learn how to walk again.”
Placed on a stroke ward alongside elderly patients, Mez said the experience was eye-opening. She said: “I didn’t realise how serious strokes were because I’d always associated them with older people.
“They gave me a side room, but sometimes I’d have to come out because someone had died. It really showed me how devastating strokes can be.”
When she left hospital, Mez was told she might never walk independently again and was encouraged to use a wheelchair. Determined to prove doctors wrong, she threw herself into rehabilitation.
She said: “I asked my consultant if I was ever going to be better than I was then, sitting in a wheelchair. I told her I’d do anything.
“She said I could prove people wrong, and I thought, ‘I’m going to do this for myself.'” Working with a personal trainer, Mez gradually rebuilt her confidence and strength.
By February 2023, around 19 months after her collapse, she was walking without a stick. She said: “I was told I might not be able to do it, but I did.”
Her recovery journey is still ongoing. Because the AVM is located deep within her brain, doctors were unable to remove it surgically.
Instead, she underwent radiotherapy in April 2023, a treatment that can take years to fully work. However, the treatment has brought new challenges.
She has since losing vision on her right side and has experienced brain swelling, requiring steroid treatment. She said: “The scariest thing is that something that’s supposed to make you better can also take things away from you.”
Now three years on from her collapse, she is still undergoing her five year course in radiotherapy. Despite the setbacks, she remains determined to keep moving forward and has even returned to Dubai – something she once feared would never be possible.
She said: “I’ve managed to go back and do things I never thought I’d be able to do again. It has taught me some serious lessons in life.
“I’ve persevered through everything and I’m still going strong.”
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