Manchester teacher, 26, given devastating diagnosis AFTER she's sent home from hospital with blurry vision
25.05.2023 - 10:57
/ manchestereveningnews.co.uk
A Manchester teacher who suffered blurry vision after thinking her contact lens had slipped found out two weeks later she was actually suffering a stroke.
Lili Vachon, 26, was sent home from hospital and was told she was suffering with a migraine when in reality she was in the midst of a “life-threatening" stroke.
It happened in August 2021 when Ms Vachon’s vision became blurred and she thought her contact lens had just slipped. However, when she took them out, her eyesight didn’t improve and she knew something was wrong.
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Ms Vachon, now 27, said: “I just remember everything going sideways, I was trying to speak but nothing was making sense. Luckily my housemate was in and she’s a nurse, so I had no choice but to crawl across the corridor to reach her.”
The pair didn’t even consider it was a stroke, so rang 111 and an ambulance was dispatched. But after waiting in A&E for hours and receiving no tests, she was sent home with a migraine.
Ms Vachon, a teacher at St Agnes school, in Levenshulme, said: “I could barely speak and my vision wasn’t right, but the doctor just said it was a migraine and sent me on my way.
“Looking back now it was quite a traumatic experience and I can’t believe they sent me home in such an unsafe state.”
After her symptoms didn’t improve, Ms Vachon was sent for an MRI scan as an outpatient to determine the cause of her collapse. It wasn’t until two weeks later that Ms Vachon got her stroke diagnosis via a phone call.
Ms Vachon said: “I was on my own and just broke down in tears when I got the call. I always thought that strokes were rare and only happened to people in their 70s, so it was such a shock.
“I was also really