Michael, from Carrigtwohill, is rushed to CUH in an ambulance.He has a temperature, a cough and difficulty breathing. He is extremely unwell. He is diagnosed with COVID-19. He is placed on a ventilator almost as soon as he arrives and, critically ill, moved to intensive care.
Over the coming weeks the intensive care and respiratory teams keep him alive. His condition is compounded by kidney failure, requiring dialysis under the expert care of the renal team. If things weren’t serious enough, Michael then suffers a stroke.
The skill of the doctors, nurses and therapists in the intensive care unit stabilize him over time and he eventually moves to the renal ward. He can’t eat, can’t walk, can’t talk. His on-ward rehabilitation continues and he shows slow signs of improvement.
His discharge is arranged with help from the Stroke Early Supported Discharge Team. Over the next 8 weeks he gets a mixture of outpatient and virtual rehabilitation. Marie, the physiotherapist, works on his weak left side, with the aim of being able to walk independently again.
Anne, the speech and language therapist works on Michael’s ability to speak clearly - an essential component of his job as a sales rep. They repeatedly simulate phone conversations to mirror everyday work scenarios.
Louise, the occupational therapist, works hard on Michael’s ability to return to driving. They work on perception, and simulate route planning around the winding roads of Munster. They practice writing adverts together and simulate money management - key parts of Michael’s job.
In today’s @irishexaminer, as part of Stroke Awareness Week, you can read all about how Michael is today. The expert intensive care he received in hospital, whilst critically ill, helped him survive the most trying ordeal of his life. 
But it is the dedicated rehabilitation by physiotherapists, occupational therapists and speech & language therapists that allow him to get his life back. Added together, these small, slow, quiet incremental gains matter more to our patients than any blood test or any medicine.
Rehabilitation is to stroke patients what chemotherapy is to cancer patients. We still have much work to do to make sure that timely access to high quality rehabilitation is available to the many and not the few.
(Thank you to Michael and his family for sharing his story)
(Thank you to Michael and his family for sharing his story)
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