Firefighter left unable to recognise herself after ‘stress’ left her face paralysed in rare condition
A firefighter has been left struggling to recognise herself after stress left her face paralysed from a rare health condition.
Emma Hawkins from Suffolk, UK, first noticed something was wrong after working a late shift on 9 June.
The 35-year-old woke up to take a sip of water around 3pm and struggled to drink properly.
After taking a look in the bathroom mirror, Emma was stunned to see how 'droopy' her face was and thought she was having a stroke.
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She called 111 and an ambulance was sent to her home in Brantham.
"At first it was just my mouth and then I went down to see my fiancé and kind of made a joke out of it saying I think I was having a stroke," Emma said.
"He went grey and said I think we need to get you to A&E. I rang 111 instead and they said they were going to send an ambulance right away.
"I have kind of grown up with a dark humour so I tried to laugh it off. The enormity of it was not breaking through."
Doctors initially gave her a false diagnosis of Bell's Palsy, but as symptoms worsened over the next four weeks, they confirmed that she had Ramsay Hunt syndrome (RHS), brought on by stress.
The rare neurological disorder causes facial nerve weakness or paralysis, a ringing of the ears, and hearing loss.
You might recall pop star Justin Bieber suffering from the health condition in 2022.
It took him nine months to recover and get his smile back.
"I had been working a lot and burning the candle from both ends a little bit," Emma admitted.
"They don't really know why a person develops Bell's Palsy, but RHS is more brought on by the shingles or chickenpox virus.
"They believe that after I had chickenpox the virus planted itself in my ear canal and has been lying dormant in there [since I was a child].
"I had a lot of personal stress and they think that where I have been run down the shingles develop in my ear canal which has caused inflammation and crushed my nerves."
Emma was prescribed with an antivirus medication and has been put on the waiting list for nerve transfer surgery.
Emma said: "I've been living with my symptoms for three months now. Physically I look completely different.
"I am quite a bubbly and smiley person and now I can only smile on one side of my face.
"Because of the imbalance in my ear and one of them not working properly and neither is my eye I get a lot of dizziness.
"I'm quite an active person and I work for the fire service but I can't work at the moment.
"It's dramatically changed my life. I can't do the things I want to do.
"It's sad when I look in the mirror and don't recognise the person looking back at me.
"Some days are easier than others. If I feel upset, I just want to stay in the house. Other days I'll force myself to get up and out.
"It's frustrating and difficult and I just want my life back and my face back."
As well as waiting for treatment, Emma is now focused on raising awareness of RHS and has urged others to take the appropriate medication straight away.
She added: "With the recovery of the nervous system it is a really long, slow and unknown process.
"They said rest and as little stress as possible can help. If my face does come back it's because I'm relaxed and resting.
"It's one of those conditions where there is so little known about it and everyone is different."
Anish Vij