Son helped me learn to speak
A DAD who lost his voice after a stroke learned to talk again at the same time as his toddler son.
Like many devoted dads, Michael Yuill loved to curl up with youngest son Josh to read his favourite books.
But as the three-yearold was learning to match sounds to pictures for cat, dog, ball and cow, his dad was doing the same.
Michael said: “I had a wonderful speech therapist, Tom, who said it would probably take three to five years.
“But I had a secret weapon – Josh. He was just learning to speak, so we learned together. We would sit down and look at nursery rhyme books or picture books.
“As he was saying the words I would say them too. Within a year I was talking again.”
Carpenter Michael, who lives i n Moodiesburn, North Lanarkshire, was just 46 when he suffered a stroke in June 2010.
He said: “It had been a busy day and after eating dinner I felt really tired and went to bed.
“I woke up around midnight and had this really tight feeling in my right hand. When I got to the toilet I could see my face had drooped on the right.”
Fortunately Michael had seen a stroke awareness campaign warning that slurred speech or a drooping face could be a sign.
He said: “I was sure I was having a stroke, even though at that point my speech was normal. My older son Ross, who was 16, dialled 999. But suddenly my speech started to change and I crashed to the floor.”
Michael was rushed to hospital and spent four days fighting for life. He said: “I was in a coma and my family were warned I might not make it.
Powerful
“When I came round I couldn’t speak. I was told the left part of my brain had been affected.”
Over the next few days Michael discovered his brain could not process many of the words he was hearing – or even read.
He said: “I’d try to speak but sounded like something from 1970s TV show The Clangers.
“I learned how powerful the brain is. Other times people would talk but my brain just couldn’t take in the words.
“I’d look at a newspaper and read it but as soon as someone asked what I was reading about I couldn’t tell you.
“It wasn’t just that I couldn’t speak, but I couldn’t remember. And I couldn’t write either.”
Michael spent the next three months at the stroke unit of Falkirk Royal Infirmary.
Initially unsteady on his feet, he quickly regained the strength to walk. But the stroke caused other damage.
He said: “My sense of taste took a long time to come back. My right arm and hand remained tight, and to this day are completely numb.
“I’d been able to speak German and Spanish but can’t any more. There were lots of other little things.”
Michael remembers a moment in hospital where he realised he could physically speak but his brain was stopping him.
He said: “Me and two other guys who couldn’t talk were all watching Braveheart. Suddenly at the key moment in the film all three of us said ‘Freedom’.
“The nurses were laughing. We tried to speak again but couldn’t.”
Michael saw his marriage break down. But when he weds fiancé Kirsten Macleod next year he is looking forward to being able to say his vows.
He said: “My speech isn’t perfect, but with patience, and my son, I know I’ll get there.”
The British Heart Foundation has committed £16.5million to stroke research. For signs and symptoms, see bhf.org.uk/stroke.