A Brit abroad originally from Surrey who was told a splitting headache after ringing in the Thai New Year was just a hangover ended up needing brain surgery.

Michael Batten, 36, thought he was suffering from his first-ever migraine when he woke up vomiting and feeling ‘extremely dizzy’ on April 14.

After having difficulty breathing he went straight to a local hospital in Chiang Mai, Thailand, but doctors thought he was just hungover and he was discharged with paracetamol and ibuprofen.

Michael, a teacher from Lightwater, said: “They kind of downplayed it – 'you’d had a few drinks'. But I didn’t even drink that much, I was home by 10pm.

“They were like ‘you might be hungover’, but I said ‘I’m not hungover, something is wrong with me.”

He was discharged the following day but after three more days ‘screaming in pain’ he decided to visit a different hospital, the private Chiangmai Ram hospital, at 5am on Friday

There, he was given a CT scan and a nurse told him horrifying news.

He said: “I fell asleep because it was so early, and a nurse woke me up and shook me and said ‘you have a brain tumour’ and walked away.

“I thought I was dying, then they said ‘we’re going to do an MRI to find out if it’s benign or cancerous.’”

After the MRI, the doctors said they had ‘good news and bad news’ – Michael didn’t have a tumour, but he had suffered from an ischemic stroke, and had a 4.5cm shadow on the back of his brain.

For Michael and his family, it was all too familiar.

He said: “In 2020, I got a random phone call in the morning from my sister saying my dad had a stroke and he’d passed away randomly.

“As you can imagine, my family must have been thinking very similar things were about to happen.”

Michael, who moved to Thailand in 2019, was rushed to the operating theatre for a craniotomy, where doctors remove part of the skull.

He says doctors told him that part of his brain “fell out to breathe” following the removal.

After waking up, Michael didn’t know who anybody was and it took him days to regain the ability to speak.

While he is now able to think and speak normally, and he’s regained the ability to walk, he has been left with brain damage affecting his motor skills, co-ordination, and direction – which will likely affect him for the rest of his life.

As part of his skull is missing, Michael says he’s been told that he could die if anything hits his head.

He said: “I personally want to recover the best I can, hopefully the back of my head heals so I can play sport without worrying.”

Now, he’s worried he might face a massive £16,000 medical bill after his insurance suggested he ‘settle the expense directly with the hospital’ as it reviews his medical records.

A GoFundMe set up by his friend to help him has already received over £10,000 in donations.