A woman who suffered a seizure during a shift at work initially blamed it on a bad hangover - before discovering she had a brain tumour.
Danielle Freeman suffered the terrifying fit during a shift at McDonald's and collapsed in front of her shocked best friend and boyfriend who also worked there.
When she woke up she was surrounded by paramedics and was rushed to hospital where she was referred for an MRI scan, scheduled for several months in the future.
In the meantime the doctor warned her against “over drinking” but suffered another seizure after a night out with friends, despite limiting her drinks.
During a following-up appointment, a scan revealed a pea-sized mass in her brain which could have been there for as long as seven years, Manchester Evening News reported.
Doctors explained her brain was incapable of processing any hangovers because of the tumour.
Danielle, 23, said: “I was on the headset at the drive-thru and I suddenly made a screaming noise.
“I don’t remember any of this, but my boyfriend and my flatmate both worked at McDonald’s with me and came rushing over.
“It was my flatmate who saw me first. He saw me screaming and thought I’d seen a fly as I hate bugs. But then I slowly started to fall to the floor and a manager caught me.
"I know now it was a grand mal seizure, one that causes loss of consciousness and violent muscle contractions, and lasted upwards of two minutes.
“I was told I was likely over drinking. I was told to just have three or four drinks if I went out and to space them out with glasses of water.
“I felt really bad – like it was my fault.”
Danielle’s symptoms were managed with anti-seizure medicine before a 2020 scan showed it was growing leading to surgery in 2021.
She was admitted to Queen Elizabeth University Hospital to undergo a five-hour procedure to remove the tumour in April 2021. After three days, she was discharged and recovered rapidly.
She added: “A consultant explained my brain couldn’t process the hangovers because of the tumour, but that having a few drinks on a night out had not caused it.
“They gave me the option of either having immediate surgery or just watching and waiting, with regular scans checking the tumour, so I decided to wait.
“For me, more awareness of the signs and symptoms of brain tumours would have stopped me from blaming myself so much.
“I would have also known not to brush off the symptoms and instead to push for answers and even to suggest being sent for an MRI scan at the point when I started suffering with fatigue.”
