Quick Thinking Saves 47-Year-Old Mum During Near-Fatal Stroke

Brooke Duncan had gone to bed after an uneventful evening watching television. Around midnight, she woke with a severe headache—a moment that would leave her paralysed and change her life permanently.

The 47-year-old Sydney mother was lying beside her 10-year-old son, Blake, when she decided to get up and take some Panadol.

As she climbed out of bed, Brooke suddenly collapsed onto the floor. She called for Blake, who tried desperately to help her stand, but she could not move.

Her husband, Mark, rushed downstairs. At first, he thought Brooke might be joking.

‘Brooke, stop being silly, this isn’t funny,’ he told her as he struggled to lift her into a standing position.

‘Why can’t I lift you up? You’re like a dead weight.’

Mark then noticed that the left side of his wife’s face was drooping. He immediately recognised the possible signs of a stroke and called an ambulance.

Brooke was taken to hospital, where doctors found a blood clot in her brain and carried out emergency surgery to remove it.

While the procedure was successful, Brooke’s brain continued to swell to a dangerous level.

At 2am the following night, Mark received a phone call telling him surgeons had to remove part of Brooke’s skull to save her life.

The stroke paralysed the left side of Brooke’s body. She can no longer walk, raise her left arm or use her left hand, while even turning over in bed and going to the toilet require help from nurses.

At a recent follow-up appointment, Brooke also learned how close she had come to losing her life.

‘Oh my God, I can’t believe how good you look. The last time I saw you, you nearly died three times in front of me on the operating table,’ the surgeon told her.

Doctors later discovered that Brooke had a hole in her heart, which they believe allowed a clot to pass from her heart into her brain and trigger the stroke.

A hole in the heart is relatively common—around one in four people has one—and it is usually harmless.

Brooke now faces two more procedures: surgery to replace the section of skull that was removed and another operation to close the opening in her heart.

‘It was catastrophic. If I didn’t have that surgery, I’d be dead,’ she said.

‘I had no warning signs’

Before suffering the stroke, Brooke worked full-time as the State Operations Manager for Courts at the NSW Department of Communities and Justice.

She and Mark had been married for three years and were raising Blake in Sydney’s suburbs. Their lives revolved around work, family commitments and their son’s busy sporting schedule.

‘I always say my second job is his Uber driver, driving him to various tournaments, training and games,’ she said.

Brooke said she had no unusual symptoms or obvious warning signs before the stroke.

On August 5, she spent the evening at home, enjoying a glass of wine and watching reality TV before lying down beside Blake, as she often did. She planned to return to her own bedroom once he had fallen asleep but then awoke at midnight with the horrific pain.

Mark, who works at Long Bay Correctional Complex and had experience responding to first aid emergencies, recognised the warning signs when he noticed her facial drooping.

She remembers hearing her husband call for an ambulance and then describe her symptoms to the emergency operator.

Doctors successfully removed the clot but warned Mark that swelling in Brooke’s brain could r

equire further surgery, and their fears were realised the following night.

Surgeons performed an emergency decompressive craniectomy, removing a section of her skull the size of an orange to relieve pressure on her brain.

Brooke believes her son and husband’s quick reactions saved her life.

‘I’m very lucky that my son heard me cry out for help and very, very lucky that they both acted very urgently to get me the help I needed,’ she said.

Doctors discovered a hole in her heart

Brooke’s stroke initially left doctors searching for an explanation.

She was 47, had no warning symptoms and was not aware of any underlying condition that might have placed her at risk.

During her hospital stay, specialists carried out numerous investigations, including a transoesophageal echocardiogram, which uses an ultrasound probe passed down the throat to obtain detailed images of the heart.

The test revealed an opening in her heart that doctors believe was responsible for the stroke.

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Certain openings between the heart’s chambers can allow blood clots to bypass the lungs and travel to the brain, potentially causing an ischaemic stroke.

Brooke is now preparing for surgery to replace the missing section of her skull, followed by a procedure to close the opening in her heart.

The skull reconstruction is scheduled for the end of October, with heart surgery expected afterwards. She has been in hospital since 5 August and is currently undergoing intensive rehabilitation at Sutherland Hospital.

‘I can’t even roll myself over in bed’

The stroke has left Brooke with severe weakness and paralysis on her left side. She cannot use her left arm, hand, fingers or leg and is having to relearn basic movements.

‘My full-time job at the moment is going to the gym every day and doing rehab. My brain doesn’t speak to my left side very well,’ she said. 

She uses electrical stimulation on her shoulder to activate muscles and works with physiotherapists and occupational therapists to practice standing and eventually walking. However, she has not yet regained the ability to take a step.

The stroke also affected her ability to recognise and respond to things on her left side, a condition known as left-sided neglect.

‘My visitors were told to stand on the left side of my bed so that I was forced to try and turn my head,’ she said.

Her occupational therapist now uses games, puzzles and visual exercises to help her practice scanning her surroundings.

Although Brooke has made progress cognitively, her physical limitations remain confronting. She requires equipment and nursing assistance to use the toilet, shower and move around the hospital. Even getting comfortable in bed is difficult.

‘You know when you’re in bed and you want to just roll over because you want to get all comfortable? I can’t even roll myself over,’ she said.

‘If I need to reposition in bed, I have to call the nurse’s call bell and ask them to roll me over.’

She misses being able to write with her left hand, walk her dog and do the grocery shopping.

‘They all sound pretty ridiculous, but they’re the kind of things that I miss, just being able to function, do basic things that people do every day and take for granted,’ she said.

Struggling through ‘horrible mum guilt’

For Brooke, the most difficult part of being in hospital has been the separation from Mark and Blake.

Before the stroke, she was responsible for much of the family’s daily organisation, from paying bills to coordinating their son’s activities. Mark has now taken over those responsibilities while continuing to work full-time.

He visits Brooke every afternoon, often arriving straight from work before collecting Blake or taking him to sport. But the separation weighs heavily on her, particularly at night.

‘Every night, I lie awake and just have this horrible mum guilt that I’m not there for him on a day-to-day basis, like he’s always known me to be. I hate that,’ she said.

Brooke also misses ordinary evenings at home, cooking dinner, sitting on the couch with her family and walking their dog.

‘I’m just at the moment grieving what my life used to be and realising that it’s never going to be the same again,’ she said.

The family has received support from neighbours, school parents and their local sporting community. Parents at Blake’s school contributed towards his lunch orders, while a local coffee van arranged a tab for Mark’s coffees.

Brooke’s best friend, who visits several times a week, also organised a GoFundMe campaign to help the family prepare for the costs associated with her recovery.

Although Brooke has access to 12 months of paid leave through her government job, she remains uncertain about her long-term ability to return to work.

Her role requires complex decision-making and organisational skills, and she does not yet know how much of that capacity she will regain. She hopes to return to work by the end of March if her recovery allows it.

Meanwhile, her medical team is exploring NDIS eligibility, and an occupational therapist will assess the family’s home to determine what modifications might be needed before she can return.

‘I don’t think I’ll ever make a full recovery’ 

Brooke has been told that the severity of her stroke makes a complete recovery unlikely, and she is gradually coming to terms with the possibility that she may never regain full use of her left side.

‘In terms of my future, it’s very scary and it’s very unknown. I can’t even make a step yet with my foot, so learning to walk is my priority.’

Brooke hopes her experience encourages others to take sudden neurological symptoms seriously, regardless of their age or general health.

The common warning signs of stroke can be remembered using the FAST acronym: facial drooping, arm weakness, speech difficulties and time to call triple zero.

Other symptoms can include sudden severe headache, vision changes, dizziness, loss of balance and difficulty walking.

Brooke said she wanted people to discuss their individual risk factors and medications with their doctors.

‘A stroke is completely life-altering,’ she said.

‘I just want some normality, to be able to go home, go back to work, be the wife and mother that I was before.

‘I’ve got a long road ahead. I have no idea what that looks like.’