Recovered stroke victim a voice for rally
67-year-old tells how he went numb five years ago, and how he benefited from medical advances
Paul Thompson was shopping in downtown Victoria when his face felt odd, his arm went numb and he couldn’t speak.
It was five years ago and Thompson, now 67, was lucky enough to recognize the onset of a stroke. But the stroke also messed with his thinking. Instead of calling an ambulance, he got on a bus. Finally, he realized he needed emergency medical care, got off the bus and phoned 911.
“I was trying to deal with the anxiety of knowing something was wrong, but I also knew I wasn’t cognizant enough to know what I should do,” he said.
On Wednesday, a fully recovered Thompson was speaking at Victoria General Hospital in connection with the Victoria Hospitals Foundation’s spring campaign to raise $405,000. Called “Redefining possible,” it will support neurology and rehabilitation.
Thompson benefited from medical advances. If he had suffered the stroke as little as 10 years earlier, it might have left permanent neurological damage, perhaps a drooping face, slurred speech or poor mobility.
Dr. Kristen Attwell-Pope, head of neurology for Island Health, said in an interview about 1,000 people each year suffer a stroke in the Island Health region. While strokes are typically considered a result of aging, they can occur at any age.
Attwell-Pope said a stroke is the result of a blocked blood vessel that would otherwise supply an area of the brain with oxygen and nutrients.
It can be the result of things like the narrowing of the blood vessels or the sudden rupture of a blood vessel and leaking of blood into the brain.
Attwell-Pope said once a stroke happens, a medical race begins to restore the flow of blood to the brain. It varies from person to person, but usually the blood should be restored within six hours or damage can be permanent.
“Time is brain,” she said. “You have a period of time before the area of the brain that is not getting enough blood will not be irreversibly damaged.”
Nowadays, medical help includes clot-busting drugs and medical interventions such as catheters that extend into the blocked vessels, bringing in tiny tools to restore flow.
Emergency treatment includes specialized electrocardiogram machines. These are important in stroke care because they can detect irregularities in a heart that can cause clots that travel to the brain.
The new ECG machines are just one of the 23 instruments the Victoria Hospitals Foundation intends to pay for with its campaign.
The money will also go toward treatment of other neurological conditions and diseases, such as Parkinson’s, epilepsy, MS and Alzheimer’s.
Dr. Paul Winston, medical director of rehabilitations, said therapy can involve specialized equipment such as extra-wide padded platforms. That extra width allows a patient to stretch for exercise or flexing without the anxiety of falling off.
Winston said hoists on tracks are used to lift patients out of wheelchairs and hold them as they move down a hall or through an exercise space.
He said the hoist on a track not only allows effective exercise but is a huge lift to a patient’s spirit. The hoists may be expensive but they are worth it. “Imagine,” said Winston. “What a feeling to get up and walk if you have been stuck in a wheelchair for months.”
To learn more about the Victoria Hospitals Foundation, its campaign to “Redefine possible” or how to donate, go online to victoriahf.ca.