Bernie McDaid
Salon owner Bernadette Daid, 40, has had a lot to celebrate recently.
Having had a milestone birthday earlier this year, the best gift she received this year so far has been the gift of life. So much so, that a birthday card she got from a friend this week,celebrating her ‘one year being alive’ is more sentimental than ever.
Bernie, who is the owner of her aesthetic salon Beautiful Faces, has come through a year nothing short of phenomenal. She has been described by anyone who has heard her story as a ‘walking miracle.’
As a single parent, surviving for her two children aged 10 and 12, to which she is the sole carer, was the driving force behind her astounding and unexpected recovery.
For Bernie, the fateful day started like any other. It was a normal Monday. She had arranged to go from Derry, over the border with her niece on a day trip. What started off seemingly as a normal day out quickly turned into three months of hell.
Said Bernie: “One year ago, I had a brain aneurysm rupture in my car on the side of the road, consequently I suffered three strokes one after another, I was put into an induced coma it was an absolutely painful and horrific experience I cried constantly when I woke up, over two months in hospital.”
April 29 will be a day on the calendar Bernie will never forget. One minute she was having a conversation in her car, after pulling up at her destination, and the next she was being driven in an emergency by ambulance to a hospital in Dublin having suffered
a brain aneurysm, with her family following behind as they didn’t think that she would survive the journey.
Bernie had described herself as being ‘stressed’ in the weeks leading, however she had no prior warning, there were no obvious signs or symptoms of what was about to unfold.
Bernie explained: “I’d just pulled over when I had a very strange feeling in my head, it must have been when the rupture occurred.
“It felt like my brain being rung out. Seconds later, the pain started, a horrific pain indescribable from anything, I knew something was wrong.
“I was screaming with the pains, I couldn’t move. I started being sick and having seizures.
“I remember the start of them, and then all I remember was waking up – that was five weeks later.”
The sense of urgency was overwhelming, and once in Dublin, the neurosurgeon team got to work straight away. Thanks to their due diligence and level of skill, she survived.
The first few days in hospital Bernie’s odds of survival were extremely low, with her family being told to prepare for the worst.
As she survived the night, the uncertainty continued on, each day her family being told to prepare for the worst. However, each
day she battled on, until she was well enough to be taken out of her coma.
When describing her Neurosurgeon David O Brien, Bernie said: “My amazing talented neurosurgeon /consultant, thank god for him and his staff! I was able to come home to my children.”
For the next few months, Bernie battled against the odds to survive. A petite woman of a slim build, she became a giant powerhouse, using mind over matter to get better so she could get back home to take care of her children.
Being so far away from home, this meant Bernie’s visits from family, especially her children – were limited, due to the financial impact of travelling to and from Dublin, as well as having to find accommodation.
For three months, she battled to get better. She got the physiotherapists in the hospital to take her to the gym everyday so that she could learn to walk again, as she had been suffering with some muscle wastage, so had to regain her mobility.
Her aim was to walk in front of her children again. Bernie worked hard, each day getting a little bit stronger, until finally on July 10, she was able to go home.
Bernie described that in the moment she was ‘so happy to be home with her babies’ and thanked everyone who had prayed for her ‘they worked’.
After returning home, each day Bernie reached new milestones, setting herself daily goals, she started working on her physical strength, with the mind of starting back at work.
Describing the experience, Bernie said: “Ive spent the last year recovering, building myself up mentally and physically. I had to start from scratch literally even by teaching myself how to walk again by practicing out in my back garden everyday several times per day.
“It’s all in the mindset that everything and anything is possible when you put your mind to it. Today I am very grateful for my life and the people that are in it.
“This is just a reminder to never give up!!!!! I get up every morning and thank god for letting me be here with my children. I've never been as happy as I am today – you have not lived until you have almost died, true saying.”
Continuing to fight back, in August, a mere four months after the incident began, Bernie got the wonderful news from her consultant that she could ‘expect a full recovery.’
From that moment, things sped up, with Bernie returning to work in September. Not content to end her adventures there she began to throw herself back into her life more than ever, she got a tattoo in October, planned fun surprises for her kids in December
stating ‘this will be a very special Christmas for us this year.’
In January she celebrated her 40th birthday – or as Bernie described it, her ‘I didn’t die birthday.’ February, however, brought her the news she had been waiting for.
Being discharged from the hospital, Bernie described feeling ‘very happy’, at having been given a ‘second chance’ at life.
Reflecting back on her traumatic year with gratitude, Bernie is now back with her children, working in her salon, living her life just a little bit more carefree and grateful than before, because as Bernie says ‘you have not lived until you have almost died’.
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