Hand In Hand

In 2013, Chris Tuley had a stroke at the age of 27. With zero family history of stroke, no risk factors, and no obvious genetic disorders, doctors determined the stroke was caused by a spontaneous vertebral artery dissection. Unfortunately dissections are one of the leading causes of strokes in younger people. After spending months in therapy to correct the loss of his vestibular function, Chris fully recovered, however he had lingering nerve pain in his face that was getting progressively worse. Chris was diagnosed with central poststroke pain syndrome and received treatment at Vanderbilt’s Pain Management Clinic. After trying over 25 medications, nerve blocks, Botox injections, and eastern medicine therapies with little to no relief, Chris was desperate and despondent. Chris was told his future was likely to be filled with an increasing amount of opiates that only provided temporary pain relief. Luckily fate stepped in as Chris’ pain management doctor shared his story with a Vanderbilt neurosurgeon who

Elyse is an occupational therapist from Chattanooga, TN. She worked as a travel therapist across the country before returning home in 2019 to take a home health care position. Since she started working she’s recognized that the U.S. healthcare system is broken. She’s seen and heard time and again from survivors that they don’t get the education, quantity, or quality of therapy they need. This is the 2nd part of the interview in which Elyse goes on to details to explain what she means by low cost but high quality. Exactly the type of support survivors need.

Elyse is an occupational therapist from Chattanooga, TN. She worked as a travel therapist across the country before returning home in 2019 to take a home health care position. Since she started working she’s recognized that the U.S. healthcare system is broken. She’s seen and heard time and again from survivors that they don’t get the education, quantity, or quality of therapy they need. This is the part 1 of the interview in which Elyse focuses on her story and what made her decide to start her journey to provide additional resource survivors and family needs.

Traveling Caregivers, a grassroots hope-faith based organization, is bridging the gap between self care while navigating a multitude of Caregiving concerns with a holistic lifestyle and advocacy. Dawn Renee founder of the Traveling Caregivers, a holistic caregiver, Reiki energy and Ayurvedic practitioner struggled for most of her life to understand the triggers that were causing her to experience migraines, allergies, Endometriosis, auto immune disorder, Diabetes II, Lyme, Epstein Bar, mold exposure, gallstones and chronic fatigue. Over the past decade with a holistic nature based lifestyle approach she has devoted her life to uncovering ways to self care and healing her own disorders while holding space for others and helping them find their own recipe to self care, balance, healing, and hope. For the last 5.5 years she has been a live in caregiver caring for a friend with stage 4 ALS, Amyotrophic Lateral Scloerosis (aka Lou Gherig’s disease). Her friend is bedridden, on a ventilator, feeding tube,

Mark Garman went through a traumatic event at the age of 15 that altered my life forever. Mark had brain surgery to remove an arteriovenous malformation (AVM) that was causing him to have seizures. During that surgery he suffered a stroke- along with other complications that changed his life forever. With any drastic, life altering change, in one’s life- it came with some getting used to. Mark took it in stride, overcame the odds, and conquered all obstacles in my way. As the years went by, it became apparent that everything happens for a reason. Not only was that embedded in his mind, but his motto became "My Choices Determine My Future."

Bill just celebrated the fact that his stroke occurred 17 years ago when he was 68 and still working every day to improve, even though most people see him as someone who has made a complete recovery. Bill had a career as a teacher, a salesman, and an executive in two different food companies. And now his life is devoted to helping other stroke survivors to be inspired with their own recovery. Listen to Bill and Professor Patricia Geist-Martin share this wonderful story.

Deborah & Cam discuss how easily anyone can make simple adjustments to improve their life while in the process of recovery and beyond. Life after TBI may not be what you had envisioned; it can be better, a new normal - taking you places, meeting people you never dreamed, living a happy, healthy life. Deborah’s award winning book Becoming the Healer The Miracle of Brain Injury is packed full of helpful ideas for those going through medical trauma and those who care for them. She has moved to North Carolina where she founded Awakenings: Center for Inner Healing & Empowerment – a non-profit spiritual retreat & healing center as well as developing healing tools like Pocket Change to help others with positive change in a fun and easy way. You may contact Deborah through the center at deborah@AwakeningsCenterNC.com or by phone at 828-645-9711 or through her Facebook page.

Mary Nicholson, Founder of Healings in Motion, was a successful businesswoman. After suffering a life-altering stroke, her biggest venture became the reclamation of her life. Her journey of change began with a broken heart, after the devastating loss of her newlywed husband to Pancreatic Cancer. Her mourning was so severe and painful that Mary was hospitalized twice. She could not believe that the love that swept her off her feet was now gone. While grieving, Mary had a brain aneurysm and was rushed to the hospital. While on the operating table, she then suffered an ischemic stroke, grand mal seizure and a frozen shoulder. Her injuries left her without the ability to drive, walk or even make a complete sentence. But Mary knew that her body, mind and soul were her #1 business and priority. With this focus, she worked relentlessly to gain back her strength and engaged with organizations that worked with others with disabilities. This led to her to coordinate and sponsor the 1st Central Valley Learning D

George Scola is a stroke survivor. Many years ago, stroke disrupted his thriving career in finance. Undeterred, he started the Stroke Survivors Foundation to champion the cause for stroke survivors. He now also serves on the board of the World Stroke Organization. George has long held the vision that post discharge support is crucial to stroke survivors and a better stroke care. He is now working with Strokefocus to roll out a PDSS program in South Africa and beyond.

Vince is a fitness enthusiast and an olympic weightlifter hobbyist. At 28 years old he suffered an ischemic stroke that left him with hemiparesis on the 4th of July 2016. Vince credits being extremely blessed and remaining focused on positivity throughout rehab and onto recovery outside of the facility with making progress over the 3 years since his stroke. Vince views recovery as an ongoing challenge and sees this as an opportunity to share his story. With an emphasis on community, Vince has participated in online campaigns to raise awareness for stroke. Vince is learning to share what he believes are words of positivity and encouragement. He even says that this hurdle was given to him to show others what a survivor can beat with resolve.

Today, our panel of stroke and brain injury survivors will talk to Dr Cynthia Wilson, an art therapist with 15 years of experience on what art therapy can do to stroke recovery. According to Dr Wilson, art Therapists are masters level trained individuals who use the combination of the creative arts and mental health counseling to promote the positive mental health of people of all ages. Art Therapy has been proven to reduce stress and increase confidence. Dr Wilson believes art is a universal language that can be very healing for even those individuals experiencing the greatest depths of hopelessness. She has created the founder of the Unique Imaging Art Therapy Program which enables individuals to express themselves in a way that expands their vision of their place in the world. Her clientele has included children, adults and geriatrics in group, family and individual settings. Her solutions include art therapy, play therapy, and photo therapy techniques to children, adolescents, adults, older adults a

This is a special episode. Dr Ayesha Hunter, who is a prime expert in post stroke trauma, met with survivors and support group leaders to discuss post stroke psychological challenges. Strokefocus will work with Healings In Motion to offer a series of such discussions. If you would like to participate and meet the professionals directly, sign up at https://discovery.strokefocus.net/him

Mark Vega is an attorney and a runner. He suffered a major ischemic on 6/22/15 and a second major ischemic on 1/11/16. Luckily, Mark recovered extremely well from both incidents. He even ran marathons after that and has run longer distances too. He is a practicing lawyer and still does that working in technology, entertainment and media. He is an Army Veteran and volunteers as the Judge Advocate for American Legion Hollywood Post 43. Since the strokes he sees his work and volunteer life center around people in transition. These include Stroke Survivors, Veterans, Trans and LGBTQ people and members of 12-Step Recovery programs.

Multistem®, a drug-like cell therapy to treat stroke with adult stem cells is developed by Athersys (ATH-er-sis), a clinical-stage biotechnology company founded by a group of leading scientists in 1995. In Episode 91, we interviewed Sharon Thomas, a survivor who experienced miraculous recovery after given multistem. Athersys is conducting the Phase 3 clinical trials for MultiStem®. During Phase 2 trials in the U.S, the studies showed that MultiStem® could extend the treatment window for ischemic stroke patients to 36 hours, compared to the 3 or 4 hour window to treat patients with TPA. That meant individuals who may have had a stroke in their sleep, or patients who did not recognize the symptoms right away, might still have a favorable outcome with MultiStem® versus TPA. Multistem® has obtained FDA’s Fast Track designation. It is also in Phase 3 studies in Japan. Our guest today is Gil Van Bokkelen, CEO of Athersys, who will share with us exciting progress of Multistem®.

At age 26, Paul Coyne had to leave Goldman Sachs because of the residual of the stroke that happened to him. Undeterred, Paul returned to school to prove that despite a challenging stroke recovery and a congenital heart disease, he is still capable of great success. In the next 4-years, Paul obtained 5 degrees including a Doctorate from Columbia University School of Nursing as well as an MBA in Healthcare Management and a MS, Finance from Northeastern University. In addition, with his friend Michael Wang, Paul launched Inspiren, which is rapidly gaining traction in the medical world, leveraging Artificial Intelligence to revolutionize the nursing process. Today, Dr. Coyne is a board-certified nurse practitioner in Adult-Gerontology with sub-specialty in palliative care and his writings on end-of-life care have been published in academic journals. Columbia named him one of 9 great graduates of their entire university of 2016 upon completion of his doctorate. Listen to his remarkable story and get to know

Sharon Thomas was a road construction worker in Oregon, whose life took an unexpected turn at age 45 when she collapsed with a massive stroke that left her unable to walk, talk or even swallow. Her stroke struck one night while she was clearing dishes after dinner at her parents' house near Roseburg, Oregon. Her father noted that something was wrong with Sharon and that she may be having a stroke. She felt herself falling--knowing she was going to fall but not why--and was caught by John, her husband. Sharon was airlifted from a nearby hospital to OHSU in Portland. John was told to prepare for a long period of rehab for Sharon and that life would never return to normal. Fortunately, doctors at OHSU told John about a trial for a cell therapy from Athersys, Inc., called MultiStem. The study was double blind and it was disclosed after the Phase 2 trial ended that Sharon did not receive a placebo. She did receive MultiStem. After a period of physical, occupational and speech therapy, Sharon returned to

Scott is the CEO of NEOFECT USA, and one of the founders of its parent company, NEOFECT. The med tech company creates gamified rehabilitation solutions for patients recovering from or living with stroke, dementia, aer musculoskeletal and neurological conditions. Scott wore several different hats before joining NEOFECT, including as a management consultant and a product manager in the software industry. Scott worked for mobile gaming companies such as GREE, Z2Live (which was acquired by King.com, a "Candy Crush" maker that was later acquired by Activision Blizzard) and 505 Games, and founded a couple of startups. NEOFECT went on an IPO in November 2018, currently traded on the KOSDAQ. Scott was born with spinal bifida and has undergone surgery and understands the long process of rehabilitation. Spina bifida is a birth defect that occurs when the spine and spinal cord don't form properly. It falls under the broader category of neural tube defects. His prior experience in the gaming software industry has als

Bob Mandell’s dedication to helping others stricken by stroke has led to a new career path as author, stroke coach, speaker and founder of the Stroke Recovery Foundation, whose mission is to improve post-stroke lifestyles through education, awareness, activism, advocacy, and knowledgeable resource navigation. In his prior life, he was a corporate marketing executive, partner in an international management consulting firm, an adjunct professor at Fairfield University, and an entrepreneur in the telecommunications field. He earned his M.S. in Business from Penn State and his B.B.A. from Pace University in New York.

Kris Tucker is a 49 year old stroke survivor from Sydney, Australia. Kris suffered a stroke 6 years ago at the age of 43. He was in a rain aneurysm surgery to clip the aneurysm when he suffered a stroke. Kris would like to share all the things he has learned in the last 6 years with other people affected by stroke. Kris believes that if someone had done this with him, his marathon journey would have been a lot easier. He is putting together a stroke survivor's guide to life after stroke. The guide touches mobility, balance, essential life skills and how to stimulate the cognitive thinking.

Emory Moe or Emo is 67 years old. He had a stroke in 2014 at the age of 63. Emo worked for decades as a computer engineer. Additionally, he had been a professional rock n' roll bass player with about 200 musical dates a year. Life was good and extremely busy. In October 2014, Emo was working on a software project when he suddenly went completely blind. He was taken by ambulance to a hospital emergency room, where people completely misdiagnosed his stroke. They thought there was something wrong with Emo’s eyes, so they sent Emo home and told him to call his doctor in the next seven to ten days. Emo called his doctor right away who had him go to an ophthalmologist to get my eyes checked out. The ophthalmologist said my eyes were fine. So the doctor referred him to a neurologist. The neurologist immediately sent Emo for an MRI where they determined that Emo had had a stroke. They always say you should get stroke treatment immediately, but by this time it was four or five days later. Emo is grate