www.wohaula.net
This is Daniel Gu's story. He is a stroke survivor and suffered a TBI. I'll tell you how to join Wohaula, Daniel's ingenious website, after you read his story. Here it is:
"In Sept 2012, when my career and family were going great, an unexpected brain stem stroke derailed my whole life. Within 3 minutes, my left side was paralyzed. Later, I learned that doctors warned my wife that I might never stand up or talk again.
"In our darkest moment, 2 survivors completely changed our lives. One was Neil Yu. Neil is a very senior tax expert. Earlier that year, he suffered a brain stem stroke and was healed largely by acupuncture. He came from my hometown. We had some mutual friends. Neil not only came to hospital to see me, but also connected me with Dr. Sun, his wonderful acupuncturist. My recovery owes a lot to Dr Sun.
"Another stroke survivor was Alison Shapiro. Alison is an accomplished professional. In 2002, she suffered 2 debilitating brainstem strokes at the age of 55. Not only has Alison recovered herself, but also in 2005, she started a program to teach survivors, families and caregivers.
"I found Alison online. The very next day, she responded: How may I help? I was overjoyed. One thing led to another. In the following 2 years, Alison coached me through many difficult situations. We beat the worst prognosis by doctors. Without Alison, the recovery would be unthinkable.
"It was Aug 2014. Alison and I were trying a new online video chat program, and this was the first time we met face to face. As we talked, we found that although almost every survivor would benefit greatly from the kind of support Alison gave me, and there are many survivors would love to do that, there was simply not an easy way to connect survivors.
"My wife Hong and I decided to look for something that would help. Also, as my recovery continued, my best friends set me up on a number of social medias so I could stay in touch. I was stunned by the awesome power of social media to obtain answers for even very poorly defined questions.
"One night, my friend Jeff, an accomplished web entrepreneur, came to see us. He listened to me carefully and recommended that we look into social media. We investigated Facebook, Google Plus, Ning and finally decided to build a social media dedicated to survivors by ourselves.
"We failed and failed. In the 24 months after that, we tried numerous paths. Alison and the team laid down a few principles:
It has to serve stroke survivors and the loved ones;
It has to be very high quality;
Easy to navigate;
It has to have a good mobile app;
Never rush. Go slowly and quality first.
"We decided that the information services should be free to survivors, families, volunteers, professionals and caregivers. We studied sites built for patients, and decided that we will never collect anyone’s medical info, or even birthday and family address. We do not believe that we are in Big Data business.
"There are hundreds of Web sites, and blogs that support stroke survivors. Wohaula is not in competition with any one. Our success is measured by how much we can help each group or web site become more successful. Tell us what we can do to help you. Your success defines ours.
"When Wohaula started, the partners were trying hard to find a name. At that time, my little girl Alexis got sick. One morning, she got up and walked to my wife, Hong, busy with laundry and said: 'Mama, Wo Hao La. In Mandarin, it means Mom, I am well now.' I shared this story with one of the advisers.
“That is the name!” she exclaimed. Alison and Hong liked it, too.
"She tweaked the spelling to make it more Hawaiian. Wohaula was born.
"At the beginning, we decided that one of Wohaula’s core missions is to help local survivor groups become more effective. Encouraged by Alison, I have been working with local groups. I got in touch with at least 10 since the mid of 2015. In attending their meetings and discussions, I have learned a lot about the challenges they face. Wohaula is designed with local groups and stroke survivors in mind.
"Easy use is paramount. We want to provide a tool that helps all survivors to grow. We believe that Wohaula’s most important stake holders are survivors, families and everyone affected by brain injuries.
"We want Wohaula to become a place where rules, features and functions are driven by users. We want you to not only use Wohaula but also provide feedback to improve Wohaula. All services currently available on Wohaula will remain free. Wohaula will continue to add new features and functions based on user suggestions.
"Together, stroke survivors have power. We can change how stroke care is delivered and recovery outcomes of other survivors. We have a lot to teach one another.
"We want to see that service provided by Wohaula will accelerate new changes to help brain injury survivors. New forms of organization will grow out of our groups to advocate better care for survivors. New entrepreneurs or clinics serving brain injury survivors will flourish. Researchers will have much better access to people they are finding cure for.
"I
came to US in 1997 and earned my MBA from University of Iowa, on full
tuition scholarship. I hold a CFA (chartered financial analyst)
designation.
"After graduation, I worked in
Sprint 1999-2004 as a Senior Financial Analyst, supervisor, finance
manager and later Group Manager. I was involved in almost all major
technology investment by Sprint in this period. I am very thankful that
Sprint put me in its Financial Management Development Program (FMDP) and
rotated me through various divisions with excellent leadership
training. This gave me a very broad exposure to different areas in
finance and technology.
"In 2004 through 2009, I worked for
Wells Fargo Consumer Finance. In Wells, I got the opportunity to lead a
large technology team. We turned 4 subpar technology teams into a major
power house inside Consumer Finance Division. I really like the
experience. It gave me the first hand experience to lead technology
teams to support business.
"In 2009, I was
recruited by East West Bank to set up its Financial and Planning
Department. In 2010, I was assigned to run the MIS division of East
Bank. In late 2010, I was promoted to be the IT director (CIO) of the
East West Bank. I led the turn around of the East West Bank IT
division.
"East West Bank's IT was a struggling
unit with different teams fighting each other over the years. I put
them to work together. Realigned their function, established a solid
information security process, built up the bank's data warehouse,
recruited top development talent to work side by side with the business
team and set up its Great China IT operations.
"East
West Bank's CEO Dominic Ng said the change was 'more than day and
night.' Four days before my stroke, Federal Reserve gave a review of my
team in front of my boss, then President Julia Gouw. The comment was the
team which used to be a problem, 'is now the example for the district
to follow.'
"When
I started to recover, my best friend set me up on 2 leading Chinese
social media. The Tencent Weibo and Wechat. Both run by the leading
Chinese technology giant, Tencent, just to let me kill some time. Weibo
means 'microblog' in Chinese. There are a number of microblogs in
China. Each is an emulation of Twitter, a leading social media platform.
"I was stunned by its awesome search capability by the microblog. Taking
a deep dive into it, I found that social medias are the most powerful
information tool. Microblogs like Twitter is one form of social media.
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