2008 Woodie Awards
UCF clinic assists in stroke therapy
Donald Thomann
Issue date: 7/31/08 Section: News
Imagine falling into unconsciousness without warning. Your body begins to seize violently. You can't feel it and you can't stop it, eventually regaining consciousness in a hospital bed surrounded by doctors and nurses. Remember nothing of the incident, you've literally lost the ability to communicate with those around you.
That is how Uriah Nelson, a recent stroke survivor in ongoing rehabilitative care, described his stroke.
Nelson is one of the three stroke survivors taking part in the intensive aphasia therapy program being offered through the UCF Communication Disorders Clinic. Aphasia is the loss of the ability to speak and understand spoken and written language, and it is a common after-effect of a stroke.
The therapy program is designed to re-teach stroke survivors how to speak and write. Through therapy work with trained clinicians and aspiring students, and through interaction with strangers in the community, these stroke patients are slowly regaining their communication skills.
Janet Whiteside is the clinical educator in the department and head of the therapy program. She said the community work is what really pushes the patients to succeed.
"What we do in the therapeutic setting doesn't necessarily transfer into the real world," Whiteside said. "So we put a lot of emphasis on community reentry work. Studies have shown there is a marked difference in what a stroke survivor can do in a sterile environment as opposed to the difficulties in society."
According to the American Heart Association, there are more than 5.5 million stroke survivors alive today. Approximately 780,000 people suffer new or recurrent strokes each year.
Some victims come out of the ordeal with relatively little mental or physical damage, but a large majority of those that survive a stroke suffers permanent mental and neurological damage that only time and therapy can correct.
Strokes can strike anyone, and the patients in this summer's aphasia and general therapy program proved just that; they ran the gamut, from UCF professors and physicians to housewives to one of the inventors of the Abrams tank, which has become a staple in modern warfare.
That is how Uriah Nelson, a recent stroke survivor in ongoing rehabilitative care, described his stroke.
Nelson is one of the three stroke survivors taking part in the intensive aphasia therapy program being offered through the UCF Communication Disorders Clinic. Aphasia is the loss of the ability to speak and understand spoken and written language, and it is a common after-effect of a stroke.
The therapy program is designed to re-teach stroke survivors how to speak and write. Through therapy work with trained clinicians and aspiring students, and through interaction with strangers in the community, these stroke patients are slowly regaining their communication skills.
Janet Whiteside is the clinical educator in the department and head of the therapy program. She said the community work is what really pushes the patients to succeed.
"What we do in the therapeutic setting doesn't necessarily transfer into the real world," Whiteside said. "So we put a lot of emphasis on community reentry work. Studies have shown there is a marked difference in what a stroke survivor can do in a sterile environment as opposed to the difficulties in society."
According to the American Heart Association, there are more than 5.5 million stroke survivors alive today. Approximately 780,000 people suffer new or recurrent strokes each year.
Some victims come out of the ordeal with relatively little mental or physical damage, but a large majority of those that survive a stroke suffers permanent mental and neurological damage that only time and therapy can correct.
Strokes can strike anyone, and the patients in this summer's aphasia and general therapy program proved just that; they ran the gamut, from UCF professors and physicians to housewives to one of the inventors of the Abrams tank, which has become a staple in modern warfare.