Woman unable to walk or talk seeks medical help 1,000 miles away after harrowing UK experience

A woman who collapsed while out on a walk has had to seek help abroad after a horrifying ordeal with the . Anna Chithrakala, an English teacher and palliative carer from , suddenly lost the ability to speak and was unable to walk or move.

The 45-year-old was rushed to hospital where she underwent a six-hour operation, during which she had a major bleed on the brain and was diagnosed with a . She was tragically left unable to walk, talk or move the right side of her body.

Before the stroke, Anna was working as a freelance teacher and a live-in palliative carer while also studying to be a complementary medicine practitioner. But on December 21, 2024, with no prior symptoms, she had collapsed. Her family said the ambulance took 35 minutes to arrive and was then delayed in setting off to the hospital due to difficulties administering to her.

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They claimed, it then took hours to get her into surgery for a brain bleed at Bristol Southmead Hospital, after surgeons were unable to treat her at a smaller hospital. "From her collapse, it took five-and-a-half hours to get her into surgery at the right hospital,” her 40-year-old brother Senthil Seveelavanan told PA Real Life.

"This was partly due to ambulance staff having to register her before rushing her to the hospital. It was just complete inefficiency." She underwent two brain operations and was put into an induced coma. "She was between life and death for several weeks," her mother, Piroska Markus, 69, said.

However, as an NHS outpatient, she would only be entitled to two-and-a-half hours of rehabilitation per week for up to one month after leaving the ward. Fearing Anna would not have the tools to recover, her family found alternative treatment at the National Medical Rehabilitation Centre Budakeszi in Hungary, offering all-inclusive therapy and board, for which they were quoted around £5,000 from private UK providers.

The family drove Anna to Hungary, which took two-and-a-half days on the road, to get the care she needed.

Anna is now receiving intensive rehabilitation for £500 per week, a fee 10 times less than she was quoted for private treatment in the UK, where she is learning to walk and talk again after previously not being able to blink.

"I love it here," Anna said, speaking from the hospital in Hungary with the help of her mum and brother. "This hospital makes a difference to my recovery as everyone is optimistic and everything is about being active.

"In Lewisham, everything was pessimistic, nurses were bullying patients and the wards were very noisy with people mostly remaining in bed. I tried to climb out of the bed and escape the hospital."

For the treatment, Anna has access to weekly physiotherapy, speech and language therapy, water therapy, music therapy, occupational therapy, including cooking skills, and robotics therapy to stimulate her right arm and leg. She also has a weekly counselling session with a therapist at the hospital.

Piroska added: "I knew that rehabilitation is a strong part of the culture here and the philosophy of rehab is different. The machinery is all around so patients can use it whenever they like.

"Anna shares a room with only one other person and they have their own balcony overlooking a forest and a bathroom adapted to their needs." Anna's right hand and foot remains paralysed but she is able to walk with significant effort. She is also regaining her speech, speaking in broken sentences, and slowly recovering her cognitive abilities.

"It is a false economy cutting corners on rehab. These people could work or study but the lack of facilities takes it away from them. Anna has gone from not being able to blink to sometimes talking in complete sentences and she is getting better all the time. We want to thank everybody who has donated. It’s been lifesaving and we can’t say thank-you enough."

Her family will run out of funds by June 2, however, so they have launched a in the hope she can continue her recovery.

A Lewisham and Greenwich NHS Trust spokesperson said: “We are very sorry to hear about Ms Chithrakala’s experience with us and would encourage her and her family to contact us directly so that we can open a formal investigation into their concerns.

"We wish Ms Chithrakala well with her continued recovery and hope that she is able to return home soon."