When he was just 33 years old, Brennon Dulle suffered a life-changing stroke.
Now, he’s trying to make sure there are more resources available in Saskatchewan for others dealing with brain injuries.
Dulle’s stroke happened on Halloween night in 2015, when he and his wife, Gillian, were out trick-or-treating with their daughter and friends.
“Something happened to my brain and … I couldn’t talk properly,” said Dulle.
His memory is still hazy about the particulars of what happened next, but he said he remembers Gillian ushering him to a car and then being taken to a hospital.
At the hospital, he was told he’d had a stroke and a seizure, and would need brain surgery at the Royal University Hospital along with seizure medications.
But that was just the beginning of surgeries and seizures for him.
In 2017, Dulle’s seizures continued and he had a second operation, this time to remove a portion of his brain, which left him with memory loss.
For the most part, he only has core memories that have a deep emotional attachment — so he can’t remember things like what costume he was wearing when the stroke happened, for example.
“Probably just my wife, just the look [of] the happiness on my wife is what stands out right now in my brain,” said Dulle when asked what his strongest memory is.
“Without her, I wouldn’t survive.”
Following that operation, Dulle says he had hundreds of seizures over the next few years. Some lasted minutes. Others went on close to two hours and required STARS air ambulance assistance.
After government approval, Dulle was able to get two more surgeries in 2022 in Calgary.
He’s now been seizure-free for a year and half, and takes less medication than he used to.
After sharing a long journey to get to this point, Gillian said she’s calling this period their “honeymoon.”
“When you get a break from it, it kind of takes a whole bunch of stress off [our] shoulders,” she said.
But “there’s always this kind of underlying fear that something’s going to happen and we’re going [end] up back in the hospital with seizures and needing that care on a regular basis again.”
‘Horrible brain surgery problem’ in Sask.
While Dulle was able to get surgeries for his seizures, he had to travel to Calgary for the last two.
He said the neurology department at RUH is excellent, but due to a lack of equipment or specialized staff, there’s a “horrible brain surgery problem” in Saskatchewan.
That’s why last year, he launched a fundraising gala at TCU Place, which raised more than $20,000.
Jennifer Malloy, the CEO of RUH Foundation — which works in co-ordination with the hospital — said those funds went toward the seizure investigation unit at Royal University Hospital.
Malloy also said there are more than 10,000 epilepsy patients in the province.
“I need to get help in Saskatchewan for everyone else,” said Dulle, so he’s planning another fundraiser for this year.
The second Dulle’s Neurology Fundraiser
