A Stroke of Misfortune
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Margaret did not recognise me and her speech was seriously affected. Once she started speaking, however, she babbled on repeating herself a few times and going over the same things again and again. All simple short words like a very young child. She looked a bit disorientated but was quite settled. There was a dull, glazed look to her eyes and her inner ‘light’ appeared to have gone out. Margaret’s main topics were that ‘HE’ had been in and ‘SHE’ was doing something. I later pieced it all together. ‘HE’ was male – probably one of the doctors and ‘SHE’ was the nurse. Then there were others such as ‘HER’ who was a female visitor and ‘HIM’ who was myself, or any other male visitor. Basically, those were Margaret’s ‘vocabulary’ at the time – made up from words that she had heard other people say when they were attending her. For all intents and purposes, her brain had been wiped clean. I was devastated.
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About the Book
The following narrative relates to the history of my wife’s accident and its myriad consequences, as I know them. Most of the detail was written down in diary form as it occurred. The rest of the tale is described more or less as it was eventually related to me by my wife, Margaret. The dialogue is supplemented by narrative gleaned from all the people involved in caring for her subsequent to the accident. Supporting evidence is available for everything but my conjecture. I am not medically qualified and have striven not to give an opinion that may be judged as a medical opinion. On the other hand, I am not too unintelligent about medical matters or anything else scientific, for that matter. If you read my recently published Sci-Fi book with it’s novel theory on the time dimension, this will be sufficient to prove my point.
About the Author
John worked as a laboratory professional in the British NHS from 1948 until his compulsory redundancy in 1987. His stance on the role of the ubiquetous administrator in a dynamic organisation such as health care is made clear within the dialogue. When his wife suffered an accidental trip and fall, in the absence of care and support from the established organisations, he devoted his life to rehabilitating Margaret. This is John's very human story of the proverbial phoenix rising from the ashes. John has published a Sci-Fi book, but this story is different. It is about real people and real events. Anyone who looks after a stroke patient might take heart from his efforts to care for and obtain help for his wife, Margaret, who is the subject of the book.