A dad, who could only blink and use his big toe to communicate after a stroke, has started talking again. James Gilbert, described as the "best dad in the world", is making massive strides after suffering the stroke in April 2022.
James, from Warrington, was working from home when he began to feel sick and called 999. An extra artery in his head - which had been unidentified since birth - had burst and caused a brain haemorrhage.
As reported by the Liverpool Echo, the dad-of-two was alone at the time but managed to make his way into the garden where a neighbour spotted him. After being stabilised in Whiston Hospital he was whizzed to The Walton Centre for emergency surgery and treatment.
Following the frightening incident, James' mum Sue said: "He could not talk, he was communicating with us using a buzzer that he would press with his big toe. We are taking baby steps each day and he has started talking now, he can be hard to understand but they are massive strides."
Sue said James is the "best dad in the whole world" and his youngest daughter Maddison "followed him everywhere he went". But his daughters seeing him wired up to machines was having a "big effect on them."
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For a large part of his rehabilitation, he had a tracheostomy. This unsettled his children, said James.
“The kids would come and visit and be upset about all the different tubes and things I had attached to my body," he said. "The tracheostomy in my neck was particularly distressing for them and I couldn’t tell them properly that I was ok and it was actually helping."
Speech and language therapist Charlotte Lawrence and therapy assistant Emma Cottier suggested using a teddy to help his young girls understand. Charlotte said: “The team had been discussing ways that we could facilitate James’ children coming into the hospital, to support his rehabilitation and make it a less scary experience for them.
"Emma’s daughter very generously donated one of her teddy bears to the ward. The bear named 'Ted' was given a tracheostomy, similar to that of James'."
James said the tracheostomy Ted was "a game-changer" He explained: "My daughters were less anxious about it because they’d played with the teddy and talked about it with my wife.
"It meant that we could have proper visits and I could enjoy their company without having to answer loads of questions about it. I was finally able to get some hugs."
