“Through determination and hard work, Clodagh, Lisa, and Ciara have reclaimed the lives they deserve”
Christmas is often a time when we reflect on the hopes we have for the year ahead, for our loved ones, and for our future. But for those struck by devastating chest, heart and stroke conditions, they often have only one hope - for recovery.
Little could they have known that later that year, they would all suffer life-changing strokes and that their paths would cross after being admitted to the Regional Acquired Brain Injury Unit at Musgrave Park Hospital. At RABIU, in the bed opposite Clodagh’s, was another stroke patient - Lisa Lecky, from Belfast, who had a stroke aged 37 while eight weeks pregnant.
“As a young mum having to use a wheelchair and not being able to look after myself or my babies was just awful,” she added. “The day after my stroke the doctors removed a clot from my brain and delivered my baby at the same time. I was put into an induced coma, and I remained unconscious for ten days. When I finally came round, a nurse on the stroke ward broke the news that I’d had a baby boy, James.”
Ciara explained: “At RABIU, there were framed photos of Clodagh on the walls, and everyone would talk about her. I found out she was a stroke survivor who had left the unit shortly before I arrived, and I heard all about her journey with Locked-in Syndrome. “When I became an inpatient at RABIU Lisa was in the bed opposite me. I remember looking at Lisa and feeling really sad for her because she was like me- a young woman whose life seemed to have been devastated by stroke.
“Yet despite all the devastation, despite stroke blowing our lives apart, I love nothing more than meeting Lisa and Ciara and we just simply laugh and talk together.” Of NICHS’s support Lisa said: “I feel that it saved my life going to the Young Stroke Support Group, I will be forever grateful. When I walked in, I said to myself, ‘This is exactly what I need, people who are living like me and know what I’m going through’. It gave me so much hope and everyone was so inspiring and supportive.”
Facebook Royal Victoria Hospital Northern Ireland Health Magherafelt Enniskillen PSNI Family Co Fermanagh Lifestyle
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