A Barnsley man woke up from a six-week coma with just one thing on his mind – shocking his family who nurses warned to prepare for the worst.
Ben Wilson, 32 has been fit all his life, until one day in June 2023 when he ended up in a coma after ‘dying’ twice.
He says he remembers finishing up cleaning his house and looking forward to playing Call of Duty with his friends. He told his fiancée, Rebecca that he was experiencing some chest pain – but they both thought it was just heartburn and didn’t think it was serious enough to go to hospital.
The next thing Ben knew, he woke up in Sheffield Hospital, where he had been in a 45-day induced coma. He then shocked his family when he asked where the nearest Mc Donald’s was.
Ben said: “I just woke up and was really hungry. So, I asked where the nearest or where my McDonald’s was.
“I didn’t know where I was so I had to ask Rebecca and she explained what had happened three months earlier.
Ben was in a coma for 45 days
(Image: Ben Wilson)
“She had said that after I told her I was experiencing chest pain, I had gone and poured water all over myself as I was getting hot then I suddenly collapsed on the floor.
“She called 999 and was doing CPR for 45 minutes before the ambulance crew took over.
“According to her, I had flatlined a few times and had to be continuously ‘worked on’.
“I was taken Sheffield Hospital where they had put me in an induced coma.”
During that time staff told Ben’s family to prepare for the worst, warning them he would be in a ‘vegetable state’ and unable to speak or walk again. Ben’s family were constantly reminded that ‘it didn’t look good’ for him during every visit that they would see him.
When Ben woke up in mid-July, 2023, he was immediately moved to Barnsley Hospital where he stayed until November. He was then transferred to Neurological Rehabilitation from November 14, 2023 to February 22, 2024 where he learned how to walk, talk and read again.
Ben stands up for the first time since he collapsed with the help of a nurse and his mother-in-law
(Image: Ben Wilson)
Ben said: “I was constantly asking to go home every second and minute.
“I could see the street close to where my partner lived and just wanted to go there or home.”
Finally, when Ben was allowed to go home, he found that a lot had changed. He was ‘medically retired’ from his job in traffic management, and found that he could not do a lot of things he once could do.
Ben does his exercises at cardiac rehab
(Image: Ben Wilson)
Two years on, and he still struggles with some simple tasks such as walking up the stairs Reflecting on his journey, he said: “It could be worse. I could have been in a vegetable state.
“Two years later, I still have some memory loss, get dizzy from walking up stairs and I cannot make a soup – I was a great chef before.
“I am just grateful to be alive.
“It could have been worse.
“I don’t think the staff were wrong in trying to prepare my family for the worst when I was in the coma. They had to in case I didn’t wake up.
“I’m forever grateful to Becki for being able to do CPR until the ambulance turned up, and to NHS for all being angels.”
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