When Scott Hawkins suffered a stroke at just 37 years old, he and his wife, Danielle, began a heartbreaking, but ultimately, triumphant journey.
The stroke stemmed from a brain aneurysm caused by an Arteriovenous Malformation that had been developing in Scott since birth and that doctors had no way of knowing would happen. Scott wasn’t expected to make it through his first night in hospital, but Danielle held on hope.
Two days later, surgeons performed surgery, but Scott suffered a heart attack during the procedure.
“They lost him for a few minutes,” Danielle tells Spectrum Health. “He had loss of oxygen because of that, too.”
After 3 weeks in intensive care, doctors advised Danielle that she should let him go. She didn’t, because of true love’s kiss. “Not sure if it was real or not, but I didn’t [say goodbye], because every time I kissed him, he kissed me back,” she says.
She kept on fighting for Scott and eventually, after weeks of pulmonary rehabilitation, Scott was taken off the ventilator and began to breath on his own. There he slowly began to show some motor skills, which convinced doctors he was recovering.
Scott started rehabbing at Spectrum Health Rehab and Nursing Center in Michigan and sixteen weeks later, Scott is back home with Danielle and their four children, playing the guitar and attending music festivals just as they always had.
“Even when they told me to call the family that first night, I just never felt it,” Danielle says. “I never believed he would die. I always had this picture of him walking with a cane. He’s playing guitar again. He plays the drums. It used to be he couldn’t swallow. He had a feeding tube for nine months, but now he can eat anything he wants.”
Scott will be recovering for a long time, but he says his wife saved her life in more ways than one. The couple are so grateful to be together and that people stood behind them when Danielle made the decision not to give up on him.
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