http://www.nugget.ca/2017/06/10/stroke-survivor-battling-to-get-his-life-back
Steve Smith doesn't want the two strokes he had to define him.
Smith wants to get his life back. He wants to learn how to ride his bike again and possibly pick up a pencil and write his name.
“Many people don't think there's life after
having a stroke. I was sick. I had a stroke, but I'm not done yet,” says
the 65-year-old North Bay resident.
Smith's life drastically changed Jan. 2, 2015, when he suffered his second stroke. The first one happened Dec. 13, 2014.
Menial daily tasks were suddenly impossible.
“I can't do the things I use to do,” Smith
said Friday while sitting at a picnic table outside the PHARA
(Physically Handicapped Adults Rehabilitation Association) building on
Oakwood Avenue.
“I loved fixing furniture, but I can't see very well now. I had planned on working until I died.”
Smith has participated in a variety of
extensive therapy sessions through PHARA, everything from speech therapy
to programs that help him with his balance.
He credits the staff, particularly Brianna Topham, with helping him regain control of his life.
“If it wasn't for this group, I don't know where I would be now,” Smith says.
“They do everything for me other than feed
and burp me. A lot of people are in worse shape because they have nobody
to advocate for them.”
Heart and Stroke released its 2017 Stroke
Report this week revealing extensive gaps in recovery support and
services for Canadians who experience stroke at any age.
According to the report, more Canadians are living with the effects of stroke and require support.
“More than 400,000 Canadians live with
long-term disability from stroke and this will almost double in the next
20 years. The majority of stroke patients require ongoing recovery
support, but overall many of their needs are not being met.”
Topham, stroke community navigator for the
post stroke transitional care program at PHARA, says the program assists
between 50 and 60 people of different ages from their 20s to 80s.
“There's stigma out in the public that after
a person suffers from a stroke they will never progress or get better.
They will never be able to do the things they use to do.”
Programs like living with stroke, peer
support, assessment services, cognitive remediation, heart healthy
kitchen, horticulture therapy and aqua fitness, to name a few, are some
of the many services offered.
Topham says transitional care also helps
people find housing and apply for financial supports such as Ontario
Disability Support Payments.
This year’s Stroke Report focuses on recovery and rehabilitation after strokes.
The
report’s statistics note that only about 16 per cent of stroke patients
enter rehabilitation centres directly after hospital care and only
about 19 per cent enter within the first month.
Shelley Hawton, a registered nurse and
district stroke co-ordinator for the North Bay Regional Health Centre,
says the hospital sees about 250 stroke victims in its emergency
department of which 170 are admitted to the hospital.
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