Between the 8th of April 2025 and the 9th of June 2025, Dave experienced a roller coaster of ill health. Tests are ongoing with various specialists at Helen Joseph Hospital to make sense of what happened, why it all happened and best of all what led to his recovery. His MRI is scheduled for 11 August.

Fortunately Dave is recovering well and once again working with his Coaching Clients. We have received so much love and encouragement from past and current clients who were aware of Dave's situation. 

We take it day by day.

How it all began

On the 8th of April, I asked Dave to transfer some money to my account via his banking app so I could buy his meds.  After about 10 minutes, I asked if he had done it. He looked at me, picked up his phone and stared at it for awhile and eventually said, "I don't know how to do it". 

I became very concerned when he stared at his computer which had become a complete mystery to him. I took him to Helen Joseph Hospital for a checkup. The doctor ordered a CT scan but unfortunately, the results were inconclusive.

 Dave had also become unstable when walking and suffered 6 bad falls, his head taking the brunt of most of them and then a series of smaller falls especially when getting out of bed. I was convinced he had had a stroke which caused, or was caused by a fall. The neurologist has confirmed he had at least one minor stroke.

For 56 days life was bizarre and Dave still has no memory of what happened. He doesn't remember being taken to hospital by ambulance or anything about people visiting. John, our wonderful neighbour who is a trained carer looked after Dave during the day, showering and dressing him and keeping an eye on him when I had to go out.

Each time Dave saw John, he called him a different name - Brian, Colin, Paul and finally John the Baptist. He slept 20+ hours a day, became aggro when I tried to reason with him to stay in bed.  Everytime he tried to get up, he would fall.

His hallucinations were quite scary. He kept insisting his Dad and other people who had died, were in the room talking to him.

I had no sleep at night because he was so restless. I became decidedly not nice. I am forever grateful for our wonderful neighbours, fellow residents, our groundstaff and especially family. They all ensured that I was fed, shopping was done, loaned us a walker and wheelchair, and that I was able to pay the monthly bills while Dave was not working.

There were many nights we didn't think he would survive especially when he stopped eating completely for 15 days. He only drank a little iced water.

However, neither heaven nor hell were ready for him and on the 9th of June, Dave started to wake up. It took him several days to accept that I was his wife, he had not been kidnapped and he was in our cottage where we have lived for 6 years.

Slowly he began to eat again and learned to walk with a walker. He was very relieved to solve the mysteries of his cellphone and gradually found his way around his computer. He was very frustrated that tasks which were so simple before, became impossible to understand. He is now back to being a tech geek and helping fellow residents with their cellphones.

Helen Joseph State Hospital has had much bad press in the past couple of years. Dave was never admitted as a patient, but the treatment Dave received from Polyclinic, intern GPs, staff, the pharmacy, the lab and a number of different specialists, has been superb.

Their workload is enormous, the buildings are old and tatty but the place was spotless. The staff are always polite and caring. We particularly enjoyed the early morning routine in the different departments. Patients would start queuing at 5am and were pretty frustrated by 7am when the doors opened. 

However each department had at least one special staff member who recovered our bad moods. Once we were all seated, the "boss lady" would stand and good naturedly tell us the rules that you would never dare break. We were then instructed to stand, the men required to remove their hats and the singing and praying began. Whether you were a non-believer or any other religion it did not matter. Everyone was respectful and we felt like a real community connected via our health problems.