I am a survivor: Highland fiddler's book tells of her recovery from burst aneurysm
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Well-known Highland fiddler and composer Karen Steven has revealed how it took years to regain her love of playing and teaching music after she survived a life-threatening bleed on the brain.
In a book to be released next month, she tells how she suffered a burst aneurysm almost 18 years ago and describes the shattering impact it had. She says it feels "overwhelmingly amazing" to have come through the ordeal and that she owes her life to the neurosurgeon who treated her in hospital in Aberdeen.
"My world crashed down around me," Karen says of the brain bleed that struck her on October 20, 2005. "Six days later, I underwent surgery to repair the torn artery. Then began my road to recovery."
Her book, to be published on July 8, is entitled Nudged... A journey from music career to brain surgery and back again.
Karen (53) is originally from Reay, Caithness, and began playing fiddle when she went to Thurso High School. She returned to Caithness in 2022 after 10 years in Aberdeen.
Asked about her motivation for writing the book, she explained: "I think it was part of the recovery – writing down all my thoughts and feelings. There has been a lot of it in the family going back over the generations.
"And going off the music was quite major for me. I was curious to explore how giving up playing fiddle was the therapy for me, when often music is considered as therapy. I was reading a lot about brain aneurysms, brain bleeds and statistics of survival and recurrence.
"It began as a diary and then on a break in the Cairngorms in 2007 I decided to put it into some order. At that time, I hadn't been thinking about publishing – I had no experience of that."
In the book Karen sets out what happened to her in stark detail. She tells of being "thrust into the darkness of unconsciousness" before waking in hospital to learn that she had suffered a massive bleed.
She recalls feeling as though her life was ebbing away: "It was like looking into a deep, dark void. There was a swirling sensation."
Karen is full of praise for the care she received from David Currie and the rest of the NHS neurosurgical team at Aberdeen Royal Infirmary.
"I am a survivor and I owe my life to Mr Currie, my neurosurgeon," she writes. "My family and friends are a close second. They are the driving force who gave me the will to fight, the strength to get better."
Karen's musical career had been thriving until the burst aneurysm – but afterwards she found that she had lost all her love for playing and teaching fiddle. It wasn't until about seven years ago that she began playing again.
"It was a continuous feeling of not wanting to return to the music," she explained. "I was surprised, but allowed that feeling to continue.
"I began playing again, I don't remember, sometime around 2016. As I'd sold my previous fiddle, I had to buy a new one when the playing began to increase. I borrowed one initially until I realised I should buy one for myself."
Asked whether she feels lucky to have survived, Karen replied: "Extremely lucky, especially when the statistics for survival are quite low. It's a life-threatening illness.
"I am lucky to be back to full health and to have no issues with mobility, speech or memory, in spite of the significant bleed."
Karen has already raised around £12,000 for the NHS through CD sales and will donate £500 from sales of her book to be split between the Bignold ward at Caithness General Hospital in Wick and palliative care at Thurso's Dunbar Hospital, where her father received "excellent care" from August to December 2021.
Karen has received awards from the Cross Trust and the Foundation for Sport and the Arts. Career highlights have included performing for the former US president Bill Clinton at the Carnegie Club in Skibo Castle as well as teaching at Celtic Connections and UHI Sabhal Mòr Ostaig, the national centre for Gaelic language and culture, alongside California-based Alasdair Fraser.
Karen has released six CD albums and has guested on others. As a composer, her music has featured in two collections and in 2020 she published her book Karen Steven’s New Scottish Fiddle Tunes.
Nudged... A journey from music career to brain surgery and back again, by Karen Steven, is published by Independent Publishing Network on July 8 with pre-orders now available, priced £8.
It can be purchased from www.karensteven.co.uk as well as Our Wee Shop, Westfield (Caithness); The Otter’s Couch, Brora; and River Bothy, Berriedale.
