The Hartlepool 23-year-old who may owe her life to being left-handed after suffering a deadly bleed on the brain

A Hartlepool woman has described the day her life was devastated – by a brain condition she’d unknowingly had since the day she was born.
Jade Henderson was a healthy 22-year-old when she collapsed in the street and was rushed to hospital with ‘a ticking timebomb’ brain bleed inside her head. Also pictured with her mum Sharon Henderson.Jade Henderson was a healthy 22-year-old when she collapsed in the street and was rushed to hospital with ‘a ticking timebomb’ brain bleed inside her head. Also pictured with her mum Sharon Henderson.
Jade Henderson was a healthy 22-year-old when she collapsed in the street and was rushed to hospital with ‘a ticking timebomb’ brain bleed inside her head. Also pictured with her mum Sharon Henderson.

And even more remarkably, Jade Henderson may owe her life to the fact she is left-handed, she told the Hartlepool Mail.

Jade was a healthy 22-year-old when she went for a night out with friends in Sunderland and South Tyneside. But within minutes of meeting her pals in Hebburn, she collapsed in the street and was rushed to hospital with ‘a ticking timebomb’ brain bleed inside her head.

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She fought for life in a coma for ten days with doctors telling her mother Sharon Henderson, 50, that Jade probably would not survive.

Jade Henderson pictured in the days before her collapse last year.Jade Henderson pictured in the days before her collapse last year.
Jade Henderson pictured in the days before her collapse last year.

“She died twice on the table. Her heart stopped beating. She had a stroke as well,” said Sharon. "They asked me if I wanted to come in and say goodbye to her.

"I was in a daze, I was trying to be normal for everyone else but my daughter had this silent killer and there was nothing I could do.”

Jade told the Mail: “All I can remember is waking up on a high dependency ward and asking for chips and gravy.

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"I couldn’t believe it when they told me what had happened to me. I thought they were joking.”

Jade in hospital after her operation.Jade in hospital after her operation.
Jade in hospital after her operation.

Jade collapsed at around 7pm on November 9 last year. She was first taken to South Tyneside Hospital and then transferred to the Royal Victoria Infirmary where surgeons operated until 4.30am the next day.

They found that Jade had an arteriovenous malformation (AVM) which disrupts blood flow and oxygen circulation – and that she’d had it since she was born without anyone knowing about it, Sharon said.

AVM’s only affect one per cent of the UK population and most cases are men.

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In Jade’s case, the AVM had burst in her head. The next day, she was rushed back into surgery with another bleed and had to have part of her skull bone removed, said her mum.

Jade Henderson in the months before she collapsed with a bleed on her brain.Jade Henderson in the months before she collapsed with a bleed on her brain.
Jade Henderson in the months before she collapsed with a bleed on her brain.

Experts have since discovered that Jade has three more AVMs which need careful treatment and monitoring to get rid of them.

Jade needs gamma knife radiation treatment at Sheffield Hallamshire Hospital and goes in to hospital on September 10 but the family won’t know if it has worked for four years.

Incredibly, because the rupture happened on the left side of her brain, it may have saved her life because a bleed on the other side of her brain could have been fatal.

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Jade explained: “The cognitive side of the brain is the opposite side to what you write with.”

Mum and daughter together.Mum and daughter together.
Mum and daughter together.

Jade, who is now 23, remained in hospital from November 9 to December 18. She had to learn how to read, write, walk and talk all over again.

She was allowed home over Christmas and New Year and then went into rehabilitation where she stayed until a week before the pandemic restrictions started in March. That’s when she finally returned home to Hartlepool.

Incredibly, the remarkable Hartlepool woman has fought back and kept her job as cabin crew even though she has aphasia (a condition affecting her speech), dyslexia and has lost some eyesight.

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Now, she and her mum have spoken to the Hartlepool Mail to raise awareness of AVMs during AVM Awareness Month.

Jade said: “You don’t know AVMs are there until you either have a bleed or you get really bad headaches and go for a CT or MRI scan, or an angiogram.

“I want to help others. I am so grateful to everyone who helped me, family, friends, everyone.”

Jade Henderson in the months before she collapsed with an AVM bleed on her brain.Jade Henderson in the months before she collapsed with an AVM bleed on her brain.
Jade Henderson in the months before she collapsed with an AVM bleed on her brain.

For now, she said, she is determined to fight back to full health and is living ‘each day as it comes.

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"My dream was always to be a flight attendant. I am happy as I am and I am taking each step at a time.”

Mum Sharon told of the day her daughter’s life was changed so dramatically. She said: “No-one is aware of these things. It is a silent and deadly killer.

"Jade was a normal healthy 22-year-old doing all the normal things that 22-year-olds do. She loved dancing.

"On this day, she had gone to meet her friends and phoned me at ten to 7 to say she had got there safely.

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"At one minute past 7, I got a call to say she had collapsed. She had complained of a headache and her ear popping and then she collapsed.

“When I got to hospital, they took me to the family room and told me it was really serious. They told me I might be walking out of here without her.

"I was walking around dazed like I was not there.”

It was down to the quick intervention of her friends at the scene and the expert help Jade received in hospital that she survived, said Sharon. She added: “They told me that if it had been 10 minutes longer, she would have been dead. Everyone who come to her aid deserves to be praised.”

Sharon also praised the hospital staff at South Tyneside and the RVI and said: “I can’t thank them enough. It is down to them that she is still here.”

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She also praised Micky Day and Miles for Men for their support.

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