Written 1 week ago by Angel Croitor

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Jesicca Barlot, a woman in Roscommon, is currently relearning many of the skills she once had after falling into a coma following a fall from her horse.

Midlands 103’s Jillian Bannon has been speaking with Jessica to find out what happen to her and what life is like after the trauma.

“They came around the bend, right behind my horse, and it’s the horse’s instinctive reaction to leap forward if anything comes behind it suddenly – I’ve been told that the air ambulance took me to the neurological unit in Preston and I was operated on to save my life.”

Jessica tells us the story of her fall as she was out one day riding her horse. On the way back Jessica and her horse went down a hill and went around a blind bend. She was later told that two women were coming down the hill and they appeared behind the horse suddenly and that’s when the horse jolted and launched Jessica off it’s back – leaving her to fall right on her head.

Her partner, Patrick, retells the moments immediately after Jessica’s operation.

“I got a phone call from somebody – to say that Jess had a serious accident – I was met by a consultant who took me into a private room to tell me that things were very bad.”

Patrick was told by the consultant that because of Jessica’s bleeding in the brain it was very likely she wasn’t going to make it. If she was to survive she may be “a vegetable” and badly disabled. It shook him to the core as he didn’t know what was going to happen to his loved one. Her daughters and her son were being minded by Patrick in a room given to them overnight. He recalls that the other relatives of different families in the room felt almost like close friends.

“In the first week myself and her grown up children had to speak to a consultant and we were being asked what was Jessica’s views on the quality of life and what was Jesssica’s views be if she was actually to physically survive but in a state where she was severely impaired – we told the consultant very clearly she would not want to survive severely impaired.”

Jessica experienced massive damage to her brain. She still has periods where, when under stress, her mind fogs over and it doesn’t work properly. She recalls tremendous pain in the middle of the night and was dependent on painkillers to get through it all. Nowadays she doesn’t require any medication at all and she cheerfully claims that ‘lemon balm tea’ is the only “medication” she would use.

She tells us that her nerve damage isn’t related to pain anymore but more so with a feeling of being uncomfortable. Her doctor has told her it takes years for nerve damage to recover. It usually occurs when she is stressed, tired, when it’s cold or when there’s a breeze that ruffles her hair. She wears a woolly cap to keep things at bay on that end.

“The worst thing has been getting the emotional adjustment and having to learn lots of things again – one of the most helpful things has been a riding stables – it’s run by a woman who’s English but she’s married to an Irish guy and she’s been amazing – I wanted to ride Minstrel and she’s helped me and inspired me and gave me so much confidence.”

Her friends in Cumbria use horses for equine therapy and their belief was that Minstrel could help Jessica recover despite being the very cause of her most horrific trauma in life.

To aid her own recovery she took to talking to her dog Sky. She found out that she couldn’t walk at the same time and talk to her neighbour. She would have to stop in place and focus on speaking first and then to walk after so she has set herself a task to walk her dog and talk to it at the same time.

12 months after the pair had moved to Ireland Jessica had started to experience a serious bout of depression as part of the aftermath of a coma. She confided in Patrick about her suicidal thoughts of “going for walks and wishing she didnt come back”. They got in touch with a GP in the local town and they prescribed her anti-depressants.

“There was an immediate effect – it was turning Jess into a zombie – she wasn’t feeling good and Jess is a person of great strength and she thought I’m not going to take these anti-depressants.”

Patrick got in contact with Seamus from a nationwide charity called BriIreland who simply talked and listened to their emotional problems and guided them through what so many before have experienced when their life’s changed after a serious trauma to the brain.

“He spoke to me and gave me some support and then he spoke to Jessica for a long time and just by talking to somebody who knew what it was about, who’d been there, who could give the support and help and things was very good for her.”

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