My greatest wish is to be able to talk to my son...
NEW DAD’S HOPE AS HIS BATTLE TO RECOVER FROM A STROKE AT AGE OF JUST 37 GOES ON
ANEW dad who suffered a major stroke in his thirties has told how his greatest wish is be able to talk freely to his wife and baby son.
Scott Strachan is lucky to be alive after he collapsed at home, without warning, a healthy and fit 37-year-old with no family history of the condition.
Thankfully, his wife Emma, a nurse, was close by and recognised, by his drooping mouth, that he had suffered a stroke, despite paramedics assuring her he was too young.
Scott’s oxygen levels had dropped to dangerous levels and he was minutes away from falling unconscious when she found him.
Fast action is vital in the treatment of a stroke – within just four minutes without blood and oxygen, brain cells become damaged and begin to die off.
Scott, who lives in Kingspark on Glasgow’s South Side, spent more than four months in hospital in Glasgow and had to learn to walk again.
However, he says the most difficult aspect of his illness has been losing his voice, meaning he can’t communicate properly with his friends and family – including his young son, Sebastian.
He said: “Emma and Sebastian and my dog Marnie are my reasons to live and be happy. It’s my greatest wish to talk again, normally.”
Scott, who recently celebrated his 40th birthday, was living a full and active life enjoying adrenaline-packed sports including snowboarding and running when his life changed on July 15, 2015.
He said: “I knew something was badly wrong when I got up and fell into the floor. Emma came in the room and she was very scared and so was I.
“Emma has told me some things that I don’t remember, which is scary.”
Emma, 34, a nurse at the city’s Victoria Infirmary, said: “It was just a normal morning.
“Scott had said he was going to have a longer lie. When I came back into the bedroom he was lying on the floor, face down.
“I remember saying to him, ‘Scott you are scaring me, what’s going on’.
“I managed to turn him around. He was conscious but I could see that he wasn’t himself.
“He was smiling and touching my face as if to say it’s okay, but he was only smiling on one side. By this time I had phoned an ambulance.
“I could see that he couldn’t move anything on his right side and he couldn’t speak. I thought oh my goodness you have had a stroke.
“The paramedics were saying he’s too young to have had a stroke and I was saying, ‘I can assure you, he’s had a stroke’.
“I phoned my friend who is an A&E consultant and she was saying, ‘I’m sure it won’t be’ but I knew.
“We were taken to the Queen Elizabeth hospital. They did a CT scan straight away which showed he had had a big stroke in his brain and there was a drug they could give him to try and unblock the clot.
“When we saw his CT scan it was really quite bad but the doctors said he was lucky to be in this situation.”
Scott had suffered a large artery stroke, which is a type of ischemic stroke, which is caused by blockage of a blood vessel (artery) supplying the brain.
The blockage was on the left side of Scott’s brain, which can result in right body weakness and speech problems.
Emma said: “With most of the young people who have a stroke it’s a hole in the heart, but that wasn’t the case with Scott. He was just really unlucky.
“He could have died if he wasn’t found, if I had been out of the house.”
Scott spent 17 weeks in the stroke ward of the hospital undergoing physiotherapy, occupational therapy and speech therapy – which he is still receiving.
He said: “It was six weeks before I started any kind of walking. This was a good day when I was able to walk a little.
“The 17 weeks in hospital was the longest and most terrible time of my life. I just wanted to go home and be normal.
“My speech was very bad, my arm didn’t work and my leg was weak. I didn’t speak or make a single sound for two weeks.
“I couldn’t do any of my favourite things anymore.
“I was so fit and healthy. I didn’t
smoke, I was active, I ate well – but it still happened to me, for no reason.”
According to the Stroke Association, aphasia or speech impairment can be the most difficult after-effect for patients.
Scott said: “I think about my speech all day, every day.
“Some people’s aphasia is different to mine. They can talk but not use numbers or they can talk but what comes out does not make sense.
“I know what I want to say but my words don’t come out. I talk to Emma the most, she makes me talk.
“I’m lucky to have great friends who have been there to make me laugh when life has been so hard.
“The Stroke Association is a good resource for people who have had strokes or their families
“My work have supported me while off sick and made it possible to return to work which was my biggest goal.”
Doctors have told Scott that his speech is unlikely to return fully, but it is hoped that there will be improvement, due to his younger age.
He said: “I hope one day to talk to other people in sentences and not just ones or two words.
“For someone who is on their own with aphasia, it would be very lonely.”
you have been affected by stroke, visit www.stroke.org.uk/whatwe-do/scotland