Kim Ye-byeol, a South Korean woman, suffered a brain hemorrhage during her honeymoon in Bali, leading to a coma and severe physical impairments. This is her incredible story of recovery, resilience, and finding happiness in the simplest things.
When Kim Ye-byeol opened her eyes after three weeks lost in the void of unconsciousness, she found herself lying in a hospital bed, with a strange man by her side. 'He kept talking to me, but I couldn't hear him clearly and his face appeared to be split in two,' said Kim, now 29 years old, recalling the moment she was reintroduced to her husband in mid-November of 2023, about a month after their wedding.
The hearing loss and vision impairment were side effects of a brain hemorrhage that she had suffered on their honeymoon. 'Even when he showed me photos we had taken together, I still couldn't recognize him. I thought to myself, 'Why does this person have my photo?'” Kim’s memory of him came back five days later. But, along with it came the piercing realization of how her life had taken a dramatic turn at its happiest moment. Having tied the knot on Oct 28, 2023, Kim and her husband were enjoying their honeymoon in Bali when she began experiencing severe headaches, vomiting and chills. Her condition quickly worsened and she was transferred to a hospital in Hanoi, Vietnam, where her parents live. There, she went into cardiac arrest, followed by a brain hemorrhage which put her in a three-week coma. Every day, her husband visited the hospital, and in between visits, he was terrified of any call from the hospital that might bring bad news. To his great relief, in the fourth week after the cardiac arrest, Kim regained consciousness and began to recover. Kim, however, described this time as a harrowing limbo -- an endless wait, not knowing what exactly had happened to her or what the future held. All she could do was wait for visits from her husband, whom she didn’t recognize for the first five days. 'In the hospital’s intensive care unit, family visits were only allowed once a day for 30 minutes. I felt unbearably restless, unable to move my body while being conscious. There wasn’t even a clock in the room, so I had no idea how time was passing,' she said. 'Spending a long time alone in the hospital was really tough, but remembering that I overcame several close calls with death gave me hope and determination rather than despair.' She was diagnosed with an “unspecified subarachnoid hemorrhage” and “unspecified bacterial meningitis.” As a result of the severe brain bleed, she was paralyzed from the waist down and experienced speech impairment. Yet, her once life-threatening condition improved enough for her to be transferred to a general ward at a hospital in Korea. At first, she couldn’t move a single step from her wheelchair. Now, she braces herself up for the challenge of climbing stairs on her own. 'At first, no matter how hard I tried, my legs remained still, and I felt hopeless. But one day, I was able to sit up and stand. It felt like a miracle,' said Kim, who used to work as a web designer. On Dec 8, after over a year in the hospital and nearly as long since she and her husband got married, Kim was finally discharged. It also marked the delayed beginning of their married life, where they could finally share the small, previous moments of life together. Kim said she looks forward to experiencing the things she and her husband missed out on as newlyweds. 'Since we missed our honeymoon, I’d like to take a trip somewhere nearby. I also want to cook for my husband, even though my hands don’t work as well as they used to,' she said, expressing how grateful she is to her husband. 'No matter what challenges we face in the future, I’m confident we’ll handle them wisely,' he said. Kim now receives outpatient treatment. She enjoys visiting nearby cafes on her own in a wheelchair and editing videos for her YouTube channel, which she started in November last year. With a total of 12 videos so far, mostly documenting her recovery journey, her channel has amassed 1.24 million subscribers as of Jan 2. Initially, she had asked her physiotherapist to film her rehabilitation exercises to show her husband. 'Watching videos of myself slowly but steadily recovering, I wanted to offer hope to patients feeling hopeless. So, I started a YouTube channel and uploaded videos documenting my journey fighting my illness.' 'Before I got sick, I focused on making more money and looking better, thinking it would make me happier. Now, happiness for me is the simple things, like meeting friends for a chat, buying small accessories for myself, or taking a walk in the streets.' 'There was a time when I asked, 'Why is this happening to me?‘ But I changed my mindset, realizing that just because the situation was negative, it didn’t mean my thoughts had to be negative, too,' she said.
Brain Hemorrhage Coma Recovery Honeymoon Disability Resilience South Korea Youtube Mental Health
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