An MS sufferer whose wife has been left in a wheelchair after a near-fatal brain bleed is spending their £45,000 life savings on treatment abroad.
Scott McPhillimy is desperate to halt his own condition so he can be fit enough to look after her.
He was supported by Suzanne after his MS diagnosis seven years ago but during lockdown, she collapsed in the middle of a work video call after suffering the near-fatal aneurysm.
The 34-year-old is flying to a clinic in Mexico next week to start the month-long treatment programme in a bid to stop his wife, who has difficulty communicating, from going into care if his illness progresses.
The ex-police officer, from East Kilbride, said: “Suzanne means everything to me. She is my world. We’ve been together since we were 16 and I would not have got through my MS diagnosis without her.
“She’s been my rock and now I need to be hers. Her near-fatal brain aneurysm has turned our lives upside down and left my wife in a wheelchair with very little speech and in need of 24-hour care.
“Before Suzanne’s brain injury, the uncertainty of my MS only had a direct impact on me. Now I need to think what would happen to her if I deteriorated to the point I was unable to be her primary carer."
Scott is heading to Mexico for HSCT (haematopoietic stem cell transplantation) – an aggressive treatment for MS which is only offered by NHS England for patients who meet strict criteria. It isn’t yet offered in Scotland despite being recommended for approval.
The aim of the treatment is to ‘reset’ the immune system to stop it attacking the central nervous system and halt any future damage.
Scott added: "It isn’t 100 per cent guaranteed but the clinic has had a solid success rate over the last 10 years.
"Suzanne needs me and I’m determined not to let her down. She’s a fighter and I need to fight for her. If my MS gets worse and I can’t physically look after her, she would need to go into a care home and that would break my heart. It’s a very expensive gamble but it’s worth it."
The treatment at the Clinica Ruiz in Puebla, if it works, will save NHS Scotland £300,000 over 15 years as managing his condition costs £20,000 a year.
Suzanne, 34, a senior administrator, was on a Teams call with her colleagues on November 23, 2020, when she collapsed and fell off the bed mid conversation.
Scott, who has raised thousands of pounds for MS Society Scotland through an Arctic trek and abseiling off the Forth Road Bridge, said: “We were both working from home. I was on a call in the office and Suzanne was in the bedroom. I got a text saying my wife had collapsed.
“I hung up my call and ran to the bedroom where Suzanne was unresponsive. She was making a horrible gargling noise and I could hear the blood rushing behind her eyes. I shouted to her colleagues who were still on the video call to get an ambulance.
“They rushed her to the Queen Elizabeth hospital in Glasgow where an A&E consultant told me she’d had a catastrophic bleed on the brain and they were unsure if anything could be done.
"It was up to the neurosurgeons and they decided to take a gamble on her because of her age – she was only 32 at the time.
"They said if Suzanne survived, she would have life-changing injuries and there was a 40 per cent chance she would be dead within a month. I told them to do everything they could to keep her alive.
"Before the surgery, her family and I were allowed in to say our goodbyes."
Miraculously, the surgery went well, but 36 hours later Suzanne developed a massive blood clot on her brain which caused huge swelling and they had to do a decompressive craniectomy.
Suzanne was in a coma for three months and during that time she needed more brain surgeries.
Scott added: "It was like putting Humpty Dumpty back together.”
In March, Suzanne was transferred to a rehab unit, where she spent six months before being allowed home last August after Scott fought for a care package which sees two carers coming in four times a day.
Scott, who now works in the civil service, said: “My wife as I knew her died 18 months ago. She’s here but it is not the same Suzanne. She spends most of her time in a wheelchair and can repeat words back to you but she cannot initiate conversation.
"I need to lift her and transfer her between the bed and the chair.
"It’s heartbreaking."
Scott, whose mum will be by his side during his treatment in Mexico, hopes by sharing their heartbreaking story he will highlight that MS and brain aneurysms can strike people at any point in their lives.
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