How Charles Bland got to grips with a stroke (From York Press)

How Charles Bland, from Easingwold, got to grips with a stroke

11:04am Monday 30th August 2010 in Health & Wellbeing By Richard Catton, richard.catton@thepress.co.uk

FOUR years ago Charles Bland’s life changed for ever. It was early in 2006 and Charlie, as he is known to friends, was getting on with his job as a service engineer with logistics company UPS.

It was late winter and Charlie’s job had taken him to Blackpool, where he was moving heavy equipment into a van. At the time he was a fit 54-year-old and what happened next was completely unexpected.

His wife Valerie explained: “He said he was moving something quite heavy up a ramp and onto a van. He said afterwards he thought: ‘I shouldn’t have done that – I don’t feel well’, and that’s the last thing he remembers until someone found him.”

Shortly after, Valerie received a call at her home in Easingwold from Charlie’s boss, who told her that her husband had been rushed to Lancaster Hospital.

Charles had become one of the 150,000 people in the UK each year who suffer a stroke – and in his case it was a severe one which left him paralysed down one side and unable to speak, as well losing the sight in his left eye.

Rushing to hospital to be at her husband’s side, Valerie told how events quickly took a turn for the worse. On that Friday Charlie began slipping in and out of consciousness and over the next few days his heart stopped three times.

Watching her husband squirming in bed was “horrendous”, according to Valerie, and it was at this time that medical staff asked her and her daughters to make an agonising decision.

“They asked me if we wanted him to be resuscitated if his heart stopped again. I consulted my family and we agreed that we did. But we were overruled by doctors who said his brain stem was dying and he wouldn’t have any quality of life.

“On Thursday morning he was still with us and started to come round. They found out he had had a water infection and was not thrashing around because his brain stem was dying but because he was in pain from the infection.”

Charlie spent the next three weeks in Lancaster regaining his strength, though this proved difficult because the stroke had left him unable to eat solids.

Valerie said: “At the time he was very angry and down. He was very frustrated in Lancaster. We tried to get him to eat and speak but we couldn’t and he got very angry.”

In April, 2006 he was transferred to York Hospital and Valerie said it was there that the long road to recovery for Charlie began, through treatment such as physiotherapy and speech therapy.

Finally discharged in May, Charlie returned home to Easingwold and he was shown exercises by the hospital’s specialist stroke team to help him regain more mobility.

However, in 2007 Charlie’s recovery took a devastating and sudden knock-back one breakfast time. While eating, Charlie became unconscious after choking on a piece of food. The ensuing fall resulted in him breaking his working leg and, in Valerie’s own words, Charlie was “back to square one”. His recovery was slow and the break reluctant to mend. In 2008 he had an operation to repair the damage and was back on his feet within two days, said Valerie.

Charlie is, by his own admission a tryer, and grasps every opportunity to bring as much independence to his life as possible. It was this attitude which led to him agreeing to become involved in the trial of a new piece of equipment at York Hospital early this year.

Called the SaeboFlex and produced by American company Saebo, the device is worn as a glove for certain periods each day. Each finger is connected to a spring which gently holds the wearer’s hand in an open position – something some stroke patients, including Charlie, find difficult to do.

Valerie said: “Charles can grip but when he tries to open his hand he can’t because the signals don’t get through to his brain.

“He exercises with sponges balls then you take the glove off and try it with a small ball. He can do that now and actually let go. It’s retraining the brain.

“His hand and arm just used to swing at the side of him which doesn’t help him with his balance but his arm now has tone. His shoulder is no-longer dropped.”

Not yet widely available on the NHS, Charlie has his own SaeboFlex, which cost about £700, thanks to the fundraising efforts of the staff and regulars of the New Inn in Easingwold.

The device and the results it has brought mean Charlie is now able to do so many more things he had been unable to do since that day four years ago.

Valerie said: “He is able to shave on his own now; it’s tiny things like that which make such a difference.”

Since his stroke Charlie is now also able to speak once again and is back behind the wheel of a car. Next month he will begin treatment using Botox, which will be injected into his arm in a bid to further relax certain muscles.

Determined to be an example to others who have experienced the frustration of a stroke, he said it can “drive you up the wall” at times.

However, he went on: “If you have the vision to look at life as it comes, you need to strive to get life back to as near as it was before the stroke. You just keep going and going.

“So many people just give up. They say “I can’t do that” but you have to try and try and try and you can do it.”

Stroke facts

ACCORDING to The Stroke Association, someone suffers a stroke every five minutes in the UK.

The condition is the third biggest killer and the leading cause of severe disability nationally. More than 250,000 people live with disabilities caused by stroke. But what exactly is a stroke and what are the symptoms to look out for?

The association describes a stroke as a “brain attack” occuring when insufficient blood supply gets to the brain for a period of time. Without blood, brain cells can be damaged or killed off completely.

As the brain controls every funtion in the human body, when it is damaged it can cause disabilites, both mental and physical.

A stroke is a mediacl emergancy and the quicker emergency servicers can be alerted, the better chances are of a recovery.

The Stroke Association says the signs to watch out for in a victim are:

• numbness, weakness or paralysis on one side of the body (signs of this may be a drooping arm, leg or lower eyelid, or a dribbling mouth)

• slurred speech or difficulty finding words or understanding speech

• sudden blurred vision or loss of sight

• confusion or unsteadiness

• a severe headache