Comprehensive stroke care at UHN helps avid cyclist get back on his bike

 I never got back to biking, my medical staff didn't even ask if I was a bicyclist, and I biked 3 miles each way 8 months of the year in Minneapolis, I was hardcore. With the inability to grip the  left handlebar my balance was off and I could only make about 10 blocks in total before my mental capacity for biking ran out.

Comprehensive stroke care at UHN helps avid cyclist get back on his bike

John Richmond was able to get back to where he never thought he would be – on his bicycle.

An avid sports enthusiast, John was cycling home from work in December 2021 when he hit a patch of ice and fell, hitting his chin on the pavement and snapping his head back. The accident led to a stroke – instantly altering life for the then-53-year-old husband, father and social worker.

In the immediate aftermath of the fall, John thought he might walk away with only a bad headache and a destroyed bicycle. But two nights later, he woke with a throbbing headache, unable to move his left arm or leg and not speaking clearly.

“My partner knew right away that I was having a stroke,” says John, recalling the experience of an ischemic stroke – when the blood supply to part of the brain becomes blocked, preventing brain tissue from getting sufficient oxygen and nutrients.

“I thought, I might not make it, but I was determined to try.”

That resilience and positive attitude, along with the care John received at both Toronto Western Hospital (TWH) and Toronto Rehab, are the keys to him being where he is today – at home with his wife, spending time with his two children, back at work, and riding his bicycle just about everywhere.

“Stroke treatment is the ultimate team sport,” says Dr. Timo Krings, a diagnostic and interventional neuroradiologist, and at that time John had his stroke, Head of the Division of Neuroradiology at UHN and Site Chief of Medical Imaging at TWH.

Dr. Krings credits the entire team across UHN who provided care for John, both acute and rehabilitation.

“Following stroke care comes rehabilitation, and having the rehab institute in the same hospital network is a major benefit,” he says.

June is stroke awareness Month in Canada. Every year, more than 100,000 individuals across the country – roughly one every five minutes – experience a stroke.

When John was sent to the Emergency Department at TWH, UHN’s comprehensive acute stroke team was quick to provide care. John received a treatment called endovascular thrombectomy, a minimally invasive yet risky procedure involving the removal of a blood clot from a blocked artery in the brain, led by Dr. Krings.