Patient Stories: Rehabilitation

Memorial Hermann|TIRR

Frank: Stroke
Six months following a stroke, Frank is back to work and driving

As Frank, 46, worked in his yard one hot August day, he began to experience numbness in his foot and leg. His wife, Barbara, recognized the symptoms as something other than heat stroke and rushed him to the hospital. Doctors diagnosed him with a right basal ganglia stroke caused by an aneurysm that had ruptured and performed surgery to alleviate the situation.

Upon discharge from the hospital, Frank found that his outpatient rehabilitation needs were extensive. He had a paralyzed left arm, halted and slurred speech, difficulty processing thoughts and an inability to walk. A friend referred him to TIRR.

Frank, of League City, Texas, began his therapy as an inpatient, then as a patient in the Day Rehabilitation Program and eventually as a participant in the Challenge Program. Throughout his treatment, therapists were impressed with his positive attitude and his determination to recover.

Just over six months after he began therapy at TIRR, Frank went back to work as a computer administrative manager at the large chemical company where he’d spent his entire career. Although he remains paralyzed on the left side of his body, he has successfully gained his independence through his will to succeed and his rehabilitation and is able to work on his computer and drive a car.