Stroke Survivor Stories

The Champlain Regional Stroke Network offers our sincere thanks to the following individuals who have generously agreed to share the stories of their stroke journeys. Read about their experiences and how they navigated recovery.

“I wrote this article to give the reader, e.g., fellow stroke survivors, family members, caregivers, friends, and the public, a first-person account of some of the experiences and challenges a stroke survivor faces every day. I had three strokes. While some of my challenges are unique to my strokes, most of the issues I will discuss are universal issues that many of my fellow stroke survivors had and must deal with daily."

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We follow Helen, a teenage girl whose life takes an unexpected turn after suffering 3 strokes at 8, 10, and at 12. Once a vibrant and carefree teen, Helen now faces challenges that set her apart from her peers- physically, socially, and emotionally as she returns to school.

“Hmmm… why am I making so many typos on this document? That’s not like me. What’s going on? Is there something wrong with this keyboard?”

And that’s how Jo-Anne quietly entered the realm of a puzzling and debilitating stroke that ravaged the entire left side of her body, on March 2, 2023.

In April of 2013, I had a Wallenburg's syndrome stroke and spent six weeks in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) and a further three weeks in the rehab unit at the Queensway Carleton Hospital (QCH) in Ottawa. While in the ICU, I was not able to eat or breathe on my own, depending on staff and machines for support. I had to decide whether to live or die.

Eric is a self-employed massage therapist, who is married and has two children. Eric experienced his first of three strokes in December 2009 at age 37. At the time his spouse was pregnant with their first child. This stroke was the worst of the three and recovery took the longest.

Jim vividly remembers the Sunday afternoon in the middle of November 2019 when he experienced his stroke. He was standing at the kitchen counter preparing lunch for work the next day. He heard a loud buzzing in his left ear, felt weak and was unable to continue standing. Jim made it to his phone to call his girlfriend Cindy, who kept him calm while she called 911. Jim was taken by ambulance to Pembroke Regional Hospital.

On April 3, 2017, three months before her 50th birthday, Erana Pille had a stroke. Erana was finishing work and suddenly lost all sensation on the left side of her body.

She recalls having to hold on to the walls to be able to make her way to a chair to sit down.