Gold Appeal: Teen learns to walk and talk again after massive stroke

This should be a standard occurrence. What are your doctors and stroke hospital doing to ensure this outcome occurs EVERY TIME?

Gold Appeal: Teen learns to walk and talk again after massive stroke

Jane Hansen, The Sunday Telegraph

June 1, 2019 10:00am

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On a Sunday evening in February last year, 15-year-old Tia Stratilas felt an excruciating pain in her head and let out a scream before falling unconscious.

Rushing to her room, her parents were confronted with their daughter who appeared to be having a fit. Her eyes were rolled back in her head and as father Tasi started CPR her mother Maria ran for the phone to call triple-0.
Their seemingly perfectly healthy daughter had suffered a ruptured aneurysm in her brain and the blood clot that formed as a result caused a catastrophic stroke.

Tia Stratilas was 15 when she suffered an aneurysm and stroke.

Tia Stratilas was in an induced coma for two weeks.

“We are lucky she screamed otherwise we would have found her in the morning too late,” Mrs Stratilas said.
Tia had what is called an arteriovenous malformation, a malformation in an artery in her brain which caused the aneurysm. It had probably been there since birth, a ticking time bomb.

In the ambulance, paramedics feared the teen would not make it to hospital in time.
“At Wollongong Hospital the doctor operated immediately, opened her head to remove the blood clot and removed part of the bone at the front of her skull to help with the brain swelling. She was then flown to Sydney Children’s Hospital,” Mrs Stratilas said.

Tia was flown to the Sydney Children’s Hospital for more treatment.

Tia Stratilas is on the road to recovery thanks to the help of nurses like Victoria Honour and Dolly Dickinson. Picture: Sam Ruttyn

At Sydney Children’s Hospital, surgeons operated again, this time to clip the aneurysm and coil it so it would not rupture again.
“They told us it did not look good, the doctor said he was not going to sugar-coat it, it’s bad,” she said.
Tia was in an induced coma for two weeks and when she woke, it was as if she needed to learn everything all over again.
“She had to learn to walk again, it has taken four to five months to learn to walk again, and she had to learn how to connect her brain to her voice to talk, she could not remember letters, or how to eat, everything she had to learn from the beginning,” Mrs Stratilas said.

Tia undergoing some physiotherapy.

Tia had to learn to use her hands again.

Tia spent seven and a half months in hospital with a team of professionals helping to put her back on her feet and learn to talk again. It has been slow and painful work, but it’s starting to pay off.
“She has been through a lot of physiotherapy, occupational therapy and speech therapy and she can walk and talk again. She is back at school again full time with a support person,” Mrs Stratilas said.
“I’m just happy we still have her. She is starting get back some bad habits so my husband jokes that was old Tia, she is still there.
“I keep asking Tia is she okay and she is just always happy, she loves the hospital and even misses it sometimes.”
Bec McDonald, senior physiotherapist at Rehab2Kids, said Tia’s brain injury affected her upper and lower limbs and her ability to talk and express herself.
“Due to her injury, Tia had to re-learn to sit, stand, talk and walk. Tia couldn’t eat, perform self-care activities like bathing or toileting, she was initially unable to identify faces, names or her loved ones and or objects, but amazingly could sing songs word for word,” Ms McDonald said.

Tia got through with the support of her family (from left) brother Peter, her dad Tasi, mum Maria and brother Alexander. Picture: Sam Ruttyn

But her hard work with her rehabilitation team is starting to pay off.
“Tia has made great progress and has always been incredibly dedicated to her therapy, which is evident in the incredible progress she has made,” Ms McDonald said.
“Tia’s recovery required multidisciplinary approach with intensive of physiotherapy, occupational and speech therapy. She loved the hydrotherapy pool, using the Functional Electrical Stimulation (FES) bike and going on community access visits — including beach trips.

“The rehab team also supported Tia’s return to school physically and with neuro-psychological guidance and support.”

* Sydney Children’s Hospital Gold Appeal: Give a Golden Gift donation to help kids like Tia thrive — goldappeal.org.au or phone 1800 244 537