Eastlynne lucky to be alive

When Eastlynne Greene experienced a severe headache in November of 1995, she was oblivious of any tell tale signs of a total shut down. Like most headaches, the pain went away.

However, six months later, the unthinkable occurred — Eastlynne had slipped into a comatosed condition for three weeks. Later she had learned that a swollen artery (an aneurysm) had ruptured in her brain. “Doctors feared I would not live,” she said. Seven years later, Eastlynne, 50, Acting Administrative Officer V in the Ministry of Local Government, sat down to tell her story. It wasn’t easy for her. Our conversation was punctuated by infrequent sobs. But, she was “happy”, she said, to be alive. She related her experience: “That morning of the sixth (May 1996) I had gone to UWI to speak with the Deputy Director of the Institute of Business to tell him that I was running late with my projects and that I was ready to pay for the course in Human Resource. “After our conversation I just felt dizzy and that was it, I went down. Then I heard the Dep Director tell his secretary to hold me and secure my bag and that he was going for his car. I was later taken to the Port-of-Spain General Hospital.Three weeks later I awoke. I noticed my son at my bedside at the hospital and I started to ask questions. I asked him what had happened, ‘where am I?’ I remembered I was in work clothes so I looked at my feet, looked at my clothes and ah say ‘what is this, a nightie?’ I looked for cuts and I didn’t see any. I didn’t know where I was, didn’t know what I was saying... You know what still bothers me, in the three months that I stayed at the hospital? I couldn’t remember any of the nurses’ names, I didn’t understand anything.”

Prior to her incident, Eastlynne couldn’t remember the last time she had taken a vacation. At the time she was Administrative Officer IV with the Ministry of Works. The holder of a Bachelor of Arts degree in Sociology, Eastlynne was constantly upgrading her skills, taking additional courses to meet the demands of her job. “I had just completed a diploma in Public Relations. They (my employers) told me to take a few days before I started the course in Human Resource. At that time too, we had started a project with our consultants (accounting firm) to cut back on staff. So they had me and one of my colleagues working on the SCT (Special Compensatory Time) package,” Eastlynne explained. Her mornings began like this: From six in the morning she was already at work. She spent an hour in the office. At eight, she was on the field, then back at the office (Salvatori building at the time) by noon in order to catch meetings with the consultants for 1 pm. Then, she was back at the office to work on the SCT. “They gave me homework too, so when I got home I took about four hours sleep and got up to do that. That took me straight into the morning. I would cook food and was off to work again.” Her always-on-the-go routine lasted for months on end. “The doctors told me I got the aneurysm as a result of stress,” she said.

The ruptured aneurysm impaired her memory, speech, sight and hearing. “The visitors came including, then Minister of Works Mr Sadiq Baksh and I didn’t even know him. Some came out of concern, others out of curiosity.  They wondered why I was at that hospital and not St Ann’s because they say I was talking stupidness. I didn’t know anything that was going on. I would ask for something cold to drink and when the nurses brought it I would say I didn’t ask for that, ‘give me something hot’.” She described her situation as “deathly.” “I was dying,” she said. At the hospital, Eastlynne recalled overhearing conversations in low tones, among the nurses of her severe condition. “The nurses, kept away. They were ‘shoo-shooing’. They didn’t want to tell meh ah was going to have a very critical operation. They were saying I was going to die, because according to them, people don’t live after an artery bursts in their head,” Eastlynne said. After having two CAT scans, Eastlynne was moved to the neurosurgical ward for operation.  “The morning of the operation I prayed. I was watching what the doctors were doing and I noticed Dr Mahadeo, the same doctor who did rounds on the ward, standing outside the room. He was dressed in black and white and I was wondering why he not coming in. Ah say ‘Jesus Lord what I heard last night is like ah going to die.’ Ah started to bawl and cry and then Dr Mahadeo give the nurses a signal. Not too long after I started to feel sleepy. “I later found out that Dr Mahadeo, before operating, always says a prayer, then changes his clothes before he goes into the operating room.”

The surgery was successful. Doctors placed two pins to the front left of her head “to support the artery”, Eastlynne said. “I slept for five days and when I awoke I couldn’t recognise people at all. I couldn’t write. I couldn’t spell, all my senses left me and ah was just breaking down. It was very, very horrible. Ah wouldn’t wish that experience on my worse enemy, and I don’t have enemies.”Weeks later, Eastlynne was discharged from hospital. She couldn’t climb the stairs at home in Tunapuna so she stayed at her friend’s flat in Diego Martin. “I didn’t have pain because of all the medicine, but worse than pain was being fearful that I wouldn’t speak or recognise people again.” Months later, she began to see improvements. At the end of 20 months, Eastlynne was back out to work. She was transferred to the Ministry of Local Government where she has been for two years. Her charge includes the Accounts Department and General Administration. She said: “Now I feel physically and mentally okay but my speech is not up to par, the doctor said that it would never come back to its full strength. He said I’m in clinic for life. He said that if I survived seven years later, then I have many more ahead of me.” She must incorporate in her exercise programme brisk walking or swimming, though. “Life has changed. I can’t go to the Oval for cricket because ah used to rant and rave. The heat of the sun is too much so I have two to three fans in each room of my house. I’m putting in an air-condition unit. I have to wait until the sun goes down before I leave work for home.” She added: “Before I didn’t know about God, I didn’t want to know, but now I’m very spiritual. Somebody told me that I should’ve died but that it’s a spiritual thing that I’m alive.”