Richard M.
Monday, August 8, 2011
By: Richard M.

Survivor

My stroke was a 3mm Basal Ganglia Hemorrhage, above the brain stem. On November 11, 2008, I was sitting in my office and I started to experience numbness in my right leg and arm. We immediately left for the local hospital.

By the time we arrived I couldn't speak or walk. The doctor came out to the car and brought me directly for a CAT scan. After he talked to another hospital, he gave me medicine to stop the bleeding and called the helicopter to take me to there. I arrived at the new hospital 22 minutes later, and was brought to the NICU, where I spent the next 32 days on a ventilator.

I developed a severe pneumonia and many other complications. In December, I was moved by ambulance from Charleston, SC, to Hardeeville, SC where I began a long journey of rehabilitation. I was awake and breathing on my own, but was totally paralyzed on my right side. The nurses were excellent and helped me overcome a lot of my fears. It wasn't long before I started to be able to do some other things.

I was released January 19, 2009 and began physical therapy training, with three days a week there, and three hours a day a home. I was able to use a walker and within three months had graduated to a cane. Today I walk unassisted and have resumed most normal activities.