(Edited and re-uploaded in accordance with TRF guidelines:)
Here is the interview with the magazine: Hjernesagen = The Brain Cause/Association
https://www.hjernesagen.dk/wp-conten...nr.-2-2021.pdf
And a summary:
It was in the early evening of 24th July 2020. Joachim had given an interview earlier in the afternoon. Joachim, our Marie and their two children went to seen a (female) cousin of Joachim's who lives five minutes by car from Chateau Cayx. The family sits on the patio, Joachim is talking to his (male) cousin, when Marie notices that Joachim is talking nonsense. Something that is most unusual for her husband! For a brief second she thought he was teasing, but when she looks at him, she immediately realize that something is seriously wrong.
Marie asks Joachim to repeat what he just told his cousin, to Joachim's surprise:
"I can't feel anything. When you have thought the sentence, you have already heard it being articulated inside your head, and that's why it appears clear. So I'm astonished that she asks me to repeat. When I look over at her I can tell from her expression that something is wrong. But I can't feel anything."
Marie pads Joachim's arm:
"I knew right away that something was seriously wrong with his brain. I could see he facial-paralysis, it was... it was very, very dreadful. They are images that are forever in my mind."
Together with the (female) cousin Marie sounds the alarm. Unfortunately they are half an hour away from the hospital in Cahors, there is no ambulance nearby and time is critical!
Fortunately a rescue-vehicle from the fire brigade is nearby and help arrives in fifteen minutes.
Joachim can remember everything. He is not in pain and have no black-outs. He recalls the paramedics arriving and putting him on a stretcher and the drive to Cahors.
Marie drives along in the rescue-vehicle. A trip that normally lasts half an hour is done in 20 minutes. The children and their dog stays with the cousin.
On the way it is determined that Joachim is paralyzed in the entire left side of his body, from head to toe.
They arrive at the hospital in Cahors, between 21 and 22 in the evening, where Joachim is immediately scanned.
Joachim also clearly remember arriving and being checked at the hospital in Cahors. That doesn't have the facilities to treat him. So he is send on to the specialists in Toulouse.
During the drive there, he loses consciousness.
Marie however is left behind in Cahors:
"It was truly dreadful. I couldn't come along in the ambulance and I had no car in Cahors. So I had to find a car as fast as possible, so I could follow to Toulouse. I was quick to give them my mobile number, so that I could a little bit about what happened when I couldn't come along. They told me his condition was worsening and when I asked them what was the first thing that could happen, they wouldn't talk too much about it. But they were very concerned."
Joachim arrives to Toulouse around 01 and around 02 he undergoes a procedure, a thrombectomy.
Joachim has a cone-shaped bloodclot 3 mm in diameter and 13 mm long and located 4-5 cm after the first fork of the main artery, shutting off half of the blood-flow to the brain. The large size if fortunate though, because it means the doctors can remove the bloodclot.
Marie:
"It was THAT close to a tragedy that could have changed our lives forever. We are very grateful for being together today and being able to talk to you about it. I'm so grateful that he can smile and recognize me."
While Joachim is in the operating theater, Marie spends a very long night at the hospital waiting, together with Joachim's (female) cousin. or her that was pretty much the worst part:
"During the first phase it was necessary that I was focused and on. But suddenly I'm just sitting there waiting. You become really sad, because you can see the images of the accident before you, again and again. And you can see a person who is completely helpless and who can't do anything. I was afraid we would lose him as a person. His physical paralysis worried me much less, what was important was to save his brain. His ability to talk and think."
At 08.00 Marie is finally getting good news:
Marie knew he was responsive, and went in to see him right away. Joachim smiled at her, though he can't remember it today, with both sides of his face. She knew that he wouldn't be paralyzed in one side of his body.
In the meantime the DRF have been informed, but the children are not told anything until there are good news for certain. Marie would not give them false hopes.
Marie felt there was no reason to neither alarm them more then necessary, nor to give them a sense of false hope.
For Joachim that period is blurry. However when he wakes up the next day, Marie is at his side. A very special moment for him. Even though he still hadn't comprehended all details of what had happened, he did not that he had been hanging in the balance. The first thing I told her was: You saved my life!
I was incredibly fortunate.
I have experienced how Marie immediately took command of the situation and that she with her decisive actions was the one who led until I was handed over to the paramedics in Cahors and sent on to Toulouse. She was amazing! She went into soldier-mode."
Joachim praises his wife for taking charge in regards to everything, also the mundane details, about buying for food. looking after the dog, ensuring the children were looked after. Everything was under control.
"Marie was both superman and octopus at the same time."
Marie protests but:
"Yes, you were. And I know that I with Marie has a resourceful, loving, caring and safe support."
Joachim spend five days in intensive care, followed by another five days in ward before being discharged. And coming back to Cayx he was relieved to see, and recognize his children again - knowing they wouldn't have to go to hospital to visit him there for the rest of his life.
Joachim was still quite weak but together they slowly started his rehabilitation, like going for walks in local area.
Marie however was afraid to leave Joachim alone. She feared he would have another stroke and the images from him having the stroke went through her mind all the time.
"Normally Joachim is the strong viking, who is never ever ill. But all of a sudden the one who has always been the strongest, isn't that anymore: Now it was actually me who was to be the strongest. It was strange, but also good, because that is a part of being together: You must always be there for each other."
Joachim:
"Switching roles can actually bring something good with it."
Joachim has no physical aftereffects from the stroke, and he considers himself to have been extremely lucky! He is not suffereing from PTSD, but the mental recovery phase after the stroke has been long. He see things and past events in a different light now. Everything happened at the right time, from Marie spotting his symptoms and immediately sounding the alarm. The help being nearby. World specialist also being nearby at Toulouse. It all clicked at just the right time.
Marie and Joachim have talked a lot about what happened afterwards, it wasn't that easy for Marie though, but it has helped.
The sympathy from the public was very heartwarming, also the fact that Joachim family got a lot of sympathy as well, it wasn't just directed at the patient.
Both of them are convinced that it was the late Prince Henrik who helped them.
It' the first time J&M talks about what specifically happened that evening and Marie explains that they have been looking forward to telling the story, but for her this has nevertheless been hard to return to. It still affects her, something she had not expected.
J&M were interviewed at the Danish embassy.
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What a very moving account!
And very honest.
It was good they chose this magazine and this cause to tell their story in depth for the first time.
– the difference in character between Henrik and Athena reminds me a lot of the difference between their twin cousins.)
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