Jordan’s Story as told by his mum & dad

Friday 22nd July 2022 was a normal day in our house. Our only child, Jordan, was a prison officer. As he headed to work we said our usual goodbyes and waved him off. Little did we know we were waving him goodbye forever as this would be the last time we would speak to our 26 year old son. Later this day the unthinkable happened as we received a call from Jordan’s work to say he was being taken to Edinburgh Royal Infirmary as he had collapsed. Jordan had suffered a catastrophic brain haemorrhage caused by an AVM. The AVM was located towards the bottom right hand side of his head, very close to his brain stem. Due to the location and size of the AVM the neurosurgeons  were unable to operate and we were given the devastating news that our beautiful boy could not be saved. 

Jordan had always appeared to be a fit and healthy young man. He was very rarely ill and if he was unwell it was generally just a cough or cold. He was quite active and his job kept him fit. He was making plans for his future right up until he left for work that day. From arranging catch ups with friends to more serious plans about moving in with his partner. He had everything to look forward to and live for - his life was good.

Jordan never complained of any symptoms that might have led to him getting a brain scan. We now relive so many parts of Jordan’s life that may have given us a warning sign. Jordan was always hot and sweated quite profusely when exerting himself. He intermittently complained of pins and needles and pains in his legs. This happened a lot during his teens and doctors put it down to ‘growing pains’. More recently he had mentioned having moving back pain. He very rarely had headaches but on that day he had a sore head prior to collapsing. This quickly developed into a severe headache.

We spoke to doctors, nurses and neurologists to try to understand how this could happen to our young and healthy son. Like most of the population, we had never heard of an AVM and had no idea what causes them and how life threatening they can be. If there was more awareness of this illness and studies undertaken to identify possible symptoms this might help others in the future. We lost our son, who was and still is our whole world, to this silent killer. We understand the likelihood is Jordan had the AVM since birth and none of us knew anything  about it until the catastrophic bleed happened- by then it was too late.

Pauline & Keith Russell 

Jordan’s mum & dad

Joining us is Maddie, Jordan’s partner and Joanna, a good friend.