Carl’s story
‘‘I didn’t see myself as someone who would have a stroke. Then, bang! Just like that. Life changed.’
It happened on a quiet Sunday morning. Carl, a 58-year-old postman, was cycling through the countryside. But just four miles from home, his arm went numb.
‘I’d just got up this hill and felt really good. But without warning, my arm started feeling weak. It was like somebody had turned the power off. My left leg wouldn’t work either. I got my phone out with my right hand to call my wife. But I’m left-handed and couldn’t open it.
I remember thinking, ‘this isn’t good, what am I going to do?’ That was when I realised it could be a stroke’
Fortunately, another cyclist found Carl lying in the grass and phoned for an ambulance. Carl was admitted to A&E where he received a clot-busting treatment called thrombolysis, just in time.
After a week on the acute stroke unit Carl spent ten more weeks in hospital for rehabilitation. It’s here he began the long laborious process of relearning how to walk and do basic everyday tasks.
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