Brit forced to return home from 'dream' life in Australia after suffering horror stroke
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A Brit who saved up for a dream move to Australia is being forced to return home days before starting a job after suffering a major stroke. Liam Rudd and his girlfriend, Stella Slinger Thompson, 28, moved to the Gold Coast in Australia and Liam had been 'excited' to start his new job as a fleet mechanic last month. But the 30-year-old suffered a stroke in the shower and fell to the bathroom floor paralysed on November 11 before Stella found him.
After being rushed to hospital, Liam had two rounds of emergency surgery to remove blood clots in his brain and was put in an induced coma. Now, the couple are being forced to return to the UK because the cost of rehabilitation in Australia is too expensive.
Doctors haven't confirmed what caused the stroke but think it may be linked to a fibroelastoma, a benign tumour that can grow on the heart valves. Liam, who will be moving back to Guildford, Surrey, said: "It was a huge shock. I don't remember too much from the lead up.
"I didn't feel any symptoms coming on. I just remember having the stroke and being paralysed on the floor and scrambling and trying to pull myself up but being unable too. "I was due to start a new job as a fleet mechanic for a fleet engineer company. I love work so I was disappointed. But at the same time there was nothing I could do to change anything so you have to embrace it. My plan is to go back to the UK to undergo intensive rehabilitation and then come back to Australia anyway. That's still an open opportunity.
