Dad blamed stumbling on drinking too much before waking from a coma unable to remember his newborn son

A dad who put his stumbling down to drinking one too many pints of cider found out he was actually suffering a stroke that had left him in a coma and unable to remember his newborn son.

Mike Jewell, from Barnstaple in Devon, had spent a day pressing apples and knocking back a few drinks with his pals in September last year.

During the day, he began to fall over and stumble about but he and his friends dismissed it, saying it ‘must be the booze’.

However, he ended up sleeping throughout the entire following day and then eventually woke up with a ‘banging headache’.

“I hadn’t drunk much. It wasn’t as if I was hungover – I was just exhausted and felt weird,” Mike said.

Mike initially dismissed the signs as having one too many (PA Real Life)

After his wife Ellie noticed Mike was slurring his speech, the 42-year-old was rushed into hospital where he was told he had suffered a haemorrhagic stroke caused by bleeding in or around the brain.

Doctors told Mike it likely began when he began falling over a couple of days earlier.

At the hospital, Mike was monitored for a week, but his condition worsened and scans revealed that the bleed had grown so he was rushed into emergency brain surgery.

Following his surgery, Mike spent two weeks in an induced coma, while medics fought to keep him alive.

Although Mike doesn’t remember much of that time, he does recall some pretty bizarre dreams featuring comedian Romesh Ranganathan.

He told PA Real Life: “My family were terrified but I can remember my dreams from the coma but that’s about it.

“They were so weird – I was in hospital fitting windows with Romesh Ranganathan and then, as I came out of the coma, I was working in a biscuit factory.”

After waking from the coma, Mike had no memory of his newborn son.

The dad-of-three said: “When I woke up from the coma, Ellie said, ‘Here’s your son, he’s yours’, and I just said, ‘What?’. I had no recollection of him or him being born. It was so weird.

“He had completely gone from my mind.

When he came too he had no recollection of his newborn son (PA Real Life)

“I absolutely adore him – he’s brilliant – but at first I just didn’t know what was going on.”

He was also left with 'weakness everyone' and struggled to string a sentence together, and had a long road to recovery ahead.

At the hospital, Mike was given a list of tasks he would need to complete before he could be discharged, including drawing noughts and crosses grids, walking from the ward to the reception desk and back, and making a cup of tea.

He also had to relearn how to unlock his phone and use a touchscreen.

“I spent three hours just trying to put my fingers together. It was mad, but once I’d learnt it, I could remember how to do it,” Mike explained.

“I had to learn how to do everything again.”

He spent two weeks in an induced coma (PA Real Life)

But determined Mike tackled the list within a week and was transferred to his local hospital in Barnstaple before returning home a few days later.

He’s spoken out about his experiences to raise awareness of strokes happening at any age.

“I think it’s important people know a stroke can happen to you at any age, and I think my age and fitness helped my recovery,” Mike added.

Symptoms of a stroke to be aware of

According to the NHS the main symptoms of a stroke can happen suddenly.

They include:

Face weakness - one side of the face my fall or droop and it can be hard to smile

Arm weakness - it may be difficult to fully life both arms and hold them there

Speech problems - words may sound slurred or confused

An easy way to remember the symptoms is using the word FAST - which stands for: face, arms, speech and time to call 999.