Te Atatū Peninsula mum suffers aneurysm while tucking children into bed

Jessie Teece suffered a subarachnoid haemorrhage caused by an aneurysm last Sunday. Photo / Givealittle

Halloran and Teece were getting their children, Aria, 9 and Isla, 6, ready for bed when a headache turned into a medical emergency within seconds.

“Jessie came in and said she had a really bad headache, and she’s like, ‘I think you need to take me to the doctor’,” Halloran said.

“Then she’s like, ‘actually, I think you need to call me an ambulance. I think I’m having a stroke’.

“All of a sudden, she just lay back down onto our bed and started moaning and groaning, turned into screaming.”

While getting her children ready for bed, a mother was suddenly struck by a life-threatening headache, later revealed to be a brain aneurysm. Photo / Givealittle

Halloran was on the phone with emergency staff who gave him instructions, such as getting her to lift her arm.

He said his eldest daughter was very brave and took her younger sister to a faraway room.

“She kept coming back to check, and I just said, ‘It’s okay, go and look after your sister’.”

Teece then began “vomiting everywhere” and stopped communicating as the situation rapidly deteriorated within just 10 minutes.

Jason Halloran and Jessie Teece were getting their children, Aria and Isla, ready for bed on Sunday night when a headache turned into a medical emergency. Photo / Givealittle

An ambulance arrived and staff acted quickly to “knock her out”, and a breathing apparatus was put down her throat before they set off on the 45-minute journey to the hospital, he said.

Halloran said they arrived at the hospital after 11pm.

“I thought I was going to lose her. Like that’s what the doctors were pretty much saying to us.

“They’re like, this is a massive bleed. We actually don’t know if she’s going to make it.”

Halloran left the hospital at about 3.30am and was forced to endure a sleepless night, thinking he would never see his partner again.

‘She’s stable now’

Halloran said he awoke to some incredible news when he arrived at the hospital and was told Teece was in a stable condition.

“It was just a total relief, but in the same sense, it was still touch and go,” he said.

On Monday morning, she was taken for an operation to stop the bleeding and is now on the mend.

He said his youngest daughter doesn’t fully understand what happened, but knows her “mama’s very, very sick”.

He said Teece now must get through the next 14 to 21 days without any major setbacks to be in the “safe zone”.

On Sunday night, Te Atatū Peninsula graphic designer Jessie Teece suffered a subarachnoid haemorrhage caused by an aneurysm. Photo / Givealittle

“It’s just a roller coaster of going to have good days, going to have bad days,” he said.

“She might end up back in ICU. She might need another operation. The doctors and the specialists, they just don’t know because the brain’s such a delicate organ … they just can’t reassure you.”

He said she remained in good spirits and has still had her humour.

He was extremely grateful that Teece was not driving or alone at the time of the aneurysm.

“She wouldn’t have been able to get help. She would have just been, yeah, there by herself,” he said.

“She probably would have just passed away.”

All funds raised will go directly towards supporting the couple and their two daughters.