Healthy man, 36, dies after seizure during workout as family issue warning over hidden condition
Three strangers are alive today because of organ donations made by a 36-year-old man who collapsed at his local gym and died less than 24 hours later.
Stuart Grant, a recruitment manager from Worcester in the UK, was described by his sister Jodie Grant, 32, as 'the healthiest man' she knew, someone 'good at every sport he put his hand to.'
But on March 17, he began being sick with no obvious cause while working out at his David Lloyd gym, before having a seizure that had nothing to do with his training session.
Doctors would later confirm Stu had suffered a catastrophic brain bleed caused by an arteriovenous malformation (AVM), a condition he had lived with, unknowingly, his entire life.
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What is an arteriovenous malformation (AVM)?
An AVM is an abnormal tangle of blood vessels that can form anywhere in the body, including the brain, spine, kidneys, lungs or intestines, usually developing before or shortly after birth.
Many people carry one without ever finding out, unless it ruptures.
Stu's sat close to his brain stem, and medics told the family it had likely been there since childhood, growing silently with no symptoms to flag it.
Jodie, who is a registered nurse from Canterbury, Kent, said Stu had brushed off a handful of recent headaches as ordinary stress, even buying himself blue light glasses for work rather than suspecting anything serious.
"I think he'd had a few headaches but it was normal, he just put it down to stress and normal life," she said.
Stu was rushed to Worcester Royal Hospital, where he was intubated in intensive care.
A brain scan taken as soon as he arrived showed the AVM immediately, though doctors still had to carry out brain stem tests to confirm what they already suspected.
He was pronounced dead on March 18.
"He felt a bit sick in the gym, he was sick, and then he had a seizure, all in a heartbeat, is what the consultant said to us," Jodie explained.
"We were told he pretty much died soon after that, the doctors and nurses said it would have been in an instant and he wouldn't have known anything about it."
Jodie said her mother's phone call delivering the news remains something she can't process.
"Suddenly I was getting a call from my mum to say my older brother was going to die, or be severely brain damaged. And he died," she said.
"I've never experienced anything like this, losing a healthy sibling with no warning. It fundamentally changes you."
Because Stu was on the organ donor register, his liver was transplanted into a 30-year-old woman who would otherwise have died, while his kidneys went to two men in their fifties and sixties.
His heart and lungs were too badly damaged by the trauma to be used.
Jodie and her brother James are now seeking testing themselves to check whether they carry an AVM too, and the family is organising a fundraising walk for The Butterfly AVM Charity, backed by influencer Nikki Lilly, who was diagnosed with a craniofacial AVM as a child.
"Stu always wanted to be the best version of himself, and that came across to everyone he met," Jodie said.
"He was doing so well and he was robbed of his life. If there could be more awareness and testing for AVMs, it would change lives for the better."
Thomas Bamford