UNFORESEEN CIRCUMSTANCES

Hyde was determined to make it to Liberty Baptist Church in time for the 6 p.m. service Feb. 21.

She was attending a therapy certification course in Nashville and asked her instructor for permission to leave early to drive back to Chelsea.

“Two of my favorite Chelsea kids were performing that night from the University of Mobile Fine Arts Department,” Hyde said. “It was phenomenal. They did a depiction of being rescued by Jesus from the darkness.”

Hyde was praying with one of the performers on stage during the service when her aneurysm burst.

“I went up and prayed with her,” she said. “Then, I had the worst headache of my life. Something was really wrong with me.”

Hyde sent her 14-year-old son, Andrew, who was with her on the stage, to get his father and Hyde’s husband, Russ.

“By the time I get to her, she’s sitting on the choir risers, and she’s already diaphoretic (sweating heavily),” Russ said.

Russ asked Shari if she had a migraine headache, and she said what she was experiencing was different than a migraine.

“She looks at me and says, ‘You’re going to lose me,'” Russ said. “She seizes into my arms. My very first thought is she’s having a stroke.”

Paramedics arrived a few minutes later and transported Shari to Shelby Baptist Medical Center, where doctors determined she had a large brain bleed.

Shari was then taken to UAB Hospital.

“Throughout this, she had moments where she was very, very alert,” Russ said. “She would be totally with it for moments in the emergency room. Other moments, she would be convulsing. The nausea and pain was horrible.”

Russ waited as Shari’s doctors operated.

“She had a congenital aneurysm,” Russ said. “She’s had it since birth; it just chose that time to start to bleed.”

Shari’s second stroke happened when another artery ruptured during the first surgery Feb. 22.

“She had another bleed,” Russ said. “They were able to repair that bleed also. Basically, she had two massive strokes.”

Shari’s doctors operated again to put in place an internal shunt to drain cerebral-spinal fluid from her blood and relieve some of her cranial pressure. After the surgery, Shari continued to show immense progress.

“Shari physically is still blowing everyone away,” Russ wrote in a Facebook post March 2. “Original plan was for her to be in intensive care for about two weeks then move to a step down unit for about a week, then to a rehab hospital. Well being the overachiever she is, Shari was one week in intensive care unit, skipped the step down unit all together and went straight to a normal hospital floor. Tomorrow she heads to inpatient rehab! There are still a lot of physical hurdles and mental hurdles ahead for Shari but she is taking each one of them head on! We continue to covet your prayers. God has this!”

Ten days later, as Shari was preparing to go home from inpatient rehab, Russ’s post for the more than 1,000 followers of the “Prayers for Shari” Facebook page one of her co-workers created contained a breakdown of Shari’s remarkable recovery in numbers.

Instead of spending the estimated 14 days in neuro-intensive care, Shari spent eight days. Instead of seven days in a step down unit, Shari didn’t go to a step down unit. She spent three days on the neuroscience floor instead of seven days. And instead of 14-21 days at inpatient rehab, Shari completed 10 days before going home.

“She’s literally a walking miracle,” Russ said of his wife. “It’s miraculous at this point.”