“It was frightening. In one moment I couldn’t see properly.”

Do you know the signs of someone having a stroke?

While feeling a numbness or weakness and slurred speech are some of the classic signs of a stroke, having trouble seeing in one or both eyes is also a warning sign.

For Michael Ryan, 79, fit and healthy, he didn’t know that when his eyesight all of a sudden became blurry and disjointed that he was having a stroke.

“It was the afternoon of November 10^th and I was talking to a painter doing some work for us outside and without warning my vision started playing up, it was very unnerving. I lay down and persevered with the poor vision until the next morning I saw my GP. By the afternoon I was in Emergency Care at the San.”

For stroke patients like Michael and their families this year the holiday season will present a new and unique set of challenges.  

Stroke can affect people indiscriminately and without warning. Suddenly the patient’s life, and the lives of those around them, will be impacted in ways we can’t imagine. It’s a steep, new learning curve for everyone involved – and every patient’s experience is different.

Evelyn Chiriseri, Nursing Unit Manager, and her team on our Radley Ward spend their working days and nights with patients and families of those affected by stroke. “…at first it can be extremely confusing for patients.  They don’t always remember what happened to them and how they ended up in hospital – many of them aren’t able to make themselves understood and they can become frustrated, agitated and despondent. For their families it can be a heart-breaking time of uncertainty and anguish.” 

San Neurologist, Dr Peter Puhl, works with many of the San’s stroke patients.  “There’s so much that our great clinical team can do to help our stroke sufferers, but the process of managing a loved family member through a stroke and beyond could really be helped by a dedicated Stroke Care Coordinator. We believe the introduction of a new Stroke Care Coordinator role at the San will improve the patient and family experience.”

The Stroke Care Coordinator will help educate and guide the patient and their family through the treatment and recovery process; help direct and set up home based services to ease the transition back to the patient’s home or care facility and provide that all round hand holding we often look for in difficult times.  Our new Stroke Care Coordinator will also help educate others around the hospital and in the community about the nuances and cutting edge treatments to improve outcomes for stroke patients.

“I was very happy with the stroke care I received at the San, it was very thorough, but I can see how a Stroke Care Coordinator could make a real difference,” says Michael. “I use to pride myself on my good peripheral vision but the stroke has meant I bump into things on my right side, it’s a visual field defect that I’m learning to live with.” 

We’ve all had a really tough year. Healthcare has been stretched beyond capacity and funding is tight. We really need your help now to enable us to offer this incredibly valuable service to our stroke patients in 2021.

Your gift of $50 will pay for a family education session. A gift of $100 will enable our Stroke Care Coordinator to spend time setting up transition services for a stroke patient. Giving $300 would provide stroke patient and their family with one on one support in person or by phone for questions, guidance and support throughout the patient’s whole time with us in the San and helping them back home with an individualised care plan. 

Dr Puhl, Evelyn and her team appreciate every dollar you could give, as will our patients and their carers as you help provide this life changing support.

“With my wife Catherine of 54 years and my five children and eight grandchildren, I feel so fortunate we live in a great country and in a great area with a wonderful hospital like the San and we need to keep it that way,” Michael says.

We are so grateful for your support in this very challenging year and I hope you will consider helping us again this Christmas.

All donations of $2.00 and over are fully tax-deductible.