Caroline Smith is a nurse consultant from Yeovil District Hospital who specialises in Stroke and Stephen is one of her patients. Caroline spoke to the students about her role at the hospital; taking patients through the full pathway from the ambulance door to recovery. During this, Caroline showed numerous examples of brain scans to show how they could be used to predict the effects of damage and to plan treatment. She also explained how modern developments had revolutionised the treatment of strokes; particularly the latest developments in surgical removal of blood clots that are available in Bristol and Southampton.
After this technical side of the talk, Stephen showed a video he had made about his recovery from first feeling a dead arm and realising that he could not speak, through losing consciousness and the ability to control one arm and leg then on to regaining his ability to walk and even to drive.
Students were enthusiastic in asking questions to Stephen about his recovery from a stroke he had in his early 30s. They were particularly curious about how his playing of computer games helped rebuild neural connections and motivated him to learn other motor skills so he is now able to think about returning to work. They were also fascinated by the effort that he had to put into activity that we usually take for granted — he showed how he had regained the ability to talk but also said that he could lose the ability if he was concentrating hard on something else.
Needless to say, lessons immediately after the visit were full of more discussion of the visit and it was wonderful to see how our students were inspired to think about the implications of what we study.