A woman has told of waking up with "locked-in syndrome" in hospital and being unable to communicate after suffering neck pain which turned out to be a stroke.
Kate Green, 43, from Rotherham, was taking her seven-year-old son, Stanley, swimming when she suddenly had a feeling of exhaustion come over her in December, 2021.
And returning home she felt an intense pain in her neck.
“Within minutes I couldn’t move my arms or legs, couldn’t speak, and very quickly started struggling to breathe," she said.
Kate was rushed to Rotherham Hospital where she spent the next five months having had a stroke due to a bleed on the brain.
She was left with locked-in syndrome, which left her awake, yet unable to communicate.
“At first, I was in a coma with all those tubes and wires everywhere, and when I woke up, I could not move at all.” One of her biggest concerns, however, was her son having to deal with the after-effects," she told YorkshireLive.
“I think for a seven-year-old, that is quite a difficult thing to process. For a long time he thought it was his fault.”
Mrs Green believes access to support for children of stroke survivors should be a basic need.
She said: “I think this sort of thing should be given out to everyone with kids automatically, some support and advice at least for them. Maybe even access to child psychologists that can help them deal through the process.”
Mrs Green was also worried about losing her independence.
She said: “In Rotherham, you carry on receiving care at home, whether that’s physios or carers. But I just felt like I would not have any independence.
“Because I have a young son and a husband that works, I just felt that if I had gone home at that point, there would have been so much pressure on them to be my carers.”
A lack of NHS funding for aftercare for stroke survivors mean people have had to pay themselves for physiotherapy.
She believes one area hospitals could improve on would be immediate access to rehab units for those without the facilities offered at home.
And rather than classifying stroke treatment as a form of acute care, Mrs Green thinks a better solution may be to apply a “rehab mindset”.
She said: “What we need is a bit of a culture change. I think it is the way people think about the aftercare that matters here too.”
Some of the more unexpected challenges at home pushed Mrs Green to fund her rehabilitation.
“At first, I could not get upstairs. This definitely had an effect on my mental health when I thought I would have to sleep downstairs after saying “good night” to my family. I just didn’t like the idea of that," she said.
Providing medical equipment like her functional electrical stimulation tool is another idea Mrs Green feels could be a simple, yet effective solution to benefit those making long-term recoveries.
Since her diagnosis, friends and family have said the experience was a “wake-up call”, as Mrs Green had nothing short of a healthy lifestyle before the stroke.
She said: “I think I was in a better position because I didn’t smoke, I wasn’t overweight, and I was quite fit. I think that’s the reason why I’m still here. So, I think it’s so important to look after yourself from an early age.
“Even now if you had a good day of exercise, where you go to the gym for an hour a day or had a run, but you are predominantly sitting down for work, it is still classed as a sedentary lifestyle.”
While the recovery has taken time, Mrs Green has remained positive with the progress she has made so far.
She said: “My goal at the minute is just to be able to just walk around the house on my own. I feel now like it is within reaching distance. Now I can see things are getting better. I feel stronger. I think I am in a good place.”
