Life After Stroke
Life After Stroke
Survivors Mark Flood and Paul Brimble share their inspiring stories of life after stroke.
You can read more about their experiences on our website: http://www.bhf.org.uk/lifeafterstroke
Content
11.66 -> I was 14 years old when I had my stroke,
which was out of the blue.
16.78 -> I'd never had any health problems in my life.
19.2 -> One day I was struck down with a fever.
22.14 -> I've got barely any memory of it
23.66 -> but my face and the right side of my body was drooping.
27.76 -> We phoned the NHS 24
and they said, 'Get him to the hospital right now'.
32.96 -> It was a bacterial infection in the heart valve.
35.86 -> The stroke was what revealed it.
In some ways it actually saved me.
39.92 -> Went out to set up the kit,
had a funny feeling in my wrist.
43.7 -> I went there - the local hospital,
46.48 -> and within ten minutes
I was wired up to this, that and everything else.
49.62 -> I had head scans, chest scans...
52.4 -> So then I had to ring up and arrange for
another drummer for myself for that night.
57 -> I attempted to go back on the drum kit
a couple of weeks later,
60.86 -> only to be readmitted again
at three o'clock the following morning.
64.46 -> That gave me more fear than anything.
67.98 -> Because I thought that
never ever again am I gonna play.
71.82 -> One of the nurses had come up to me
74.02 -> and said, 'I hear you're an artist,
why don't you draw something for me?'
78.3 -> I said, 'Of course'. Took the pencil...
It just flopped out of my hand.
83.54 -> And I couldn't pick it up.
85.84 -> That was the first moment of...
'What's happened to me?'
89.62 -> That was really scary.
92.46 -> That temporary fright is horrible.
95.42 -> I thought I was going to lose everything, but I didn't.
108.2 -> I practised my drawing and my writing again each day,
111.8 -> and the physio...that all started to bring it back.
115.54 -> Every day's drawing had to be better
than the last day's one.
118.78 -> My target was I wanted to get back to work
121.54 -> and I also wanted to get back to playing the drums.
123.72 -> I then did everything the right way.
125.34 -> I eventually got back to where I wanted to be
and life is good now.
129.5 -> For me it was being able to get on with my work again
133.18 -> and do all the things I'd always wanted to do.
136.06 -> Now I get to work as an animator and a writer.
140.64 -> Maybe just the attitude change that I had
143.129 -> was to make each day special in its own way.
145.8 -> It's almost like taking your previous life for granted
149.34 -> and then you've got it back
and you feel like you're in control again.
153.06 -> Every day really, from then onwards, is a bonus anyway.
155.94 -> You've gotta try and get a positive out of a negative.
160.14 -> I'm a firm believer in that.
Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-A91kqrcs9s