Hi my name is Lynne my husband on the 10th October fell down our stairs backwards. He was rushed to A&E when scanned he had 10 broken ribs 5 broken in 2 places. A broken scapula and a punctured lung. I was told he was critical and needed a lung drain and a pain blocker it’s small tubes inserted into the fracture area and over 3 hours local anaesthetic is put in it lasts 6 hours then they would change it. I stayed with him 4 nights at Durham Hospital as they were so short staffed I was frightened to leave him. There’s much more went on but I’m trying to keep to the facts. He was a lot better and by the following Thursday they were talking of moving him to a rehab hospital for 5-6 weeks. He was fully with us laughing and talking about what happened. On the Thursday they took out the lung drain and said the pain blocker needed to come out the next day. The drain came out but the Friday morning they decided un be known to the family they put another one in the anaesthetist that did it carried out a much more dangerous way of doing it. We got a call he had a funny turn we dashed to the hospital to be told he’d had a cardiac arrest. We saw him in resuscitation and he was fine but very frightened. We demanded to know why they chose to do this and the more dangerous one and the anaesthetist said he was senior and that’s what he did. They said there may have been too much anaesthetic already in so wouldn’t start for 6 hours. He was in ITU. We told the ITU doctor we didn’t want the local anaesthetic going in until we discussed it as a family. We decided against it to see how he did with oral morphine. The doctor said fine. When we went to see him they had already started it. We were livid but they said look he’s fine. That night he had delirium badly so the registrar stopped the anaesthetic. They said he would be ok tomorrow. We went in early he didn’t know us he was talking gibberish and very confused. We asked the doctor it looks like he’s had a stroke he said no his limbs are moving. We left that night hoping it would settle the next day. That night he was unresponsive and they told us he’d had atrial fibrillation. He has never had heart problems. They said they would scan him Sunday morning. It came back he’d had a stroke we were heartbroken they did this to him. The injury has been overlooked the stroke has taken over. He was put on the stoke unit and fell out of bed on his bad ribs. I demanded to stay with him and they then got him transferred to a stroke rehabilitation unit which is amazing. He has come on so well he has aphasia and dyspraxia. He is doing well other than his speech he gets frustrated and angry it’s soul destroying watch. I’m desperately looking for a private speech therapist for when I get him home I’m told on the 15th December.
Sorry for the long message I’ve felt so very alone I have great family round me. We live in County Durham and would love to find a private speech therapist. Can anyone help.
I am so sorry for what you, your husband and family have been through. I can only imagine the distress this has caused you all. Given everything that has happened your husband sounds like he is a real fighter and has made an amazing recovery to date.
I cannot unfortunately help you with a speech therapist but wanted to let you know you are not alone, we are all here if you, your husband or family need someone to talk to or ask questions about stroke recovery. I would also urge you to look through the Stroke Association site as they offers a lot of support and good information.
I would suggest maybe starting with your GP as they may have a list of accredited speech therapists. I hope you find what you need and wish your husband a continued recovery.
@Lynne26 Hi & welcome to the community. Wow that’s some story & I imagine you are going through all sorts of emotions at the moment.
It is good to hear that your husband is making progress after his stroke although it is a shame it happened after everything else that had gone on too.
I don’t have any personal suggestions for a speech therapist however if you contact the Stroke Association helpline 0303 3033 100 they should be able to advise on facilities in your area.
If you have the energy uou may want to speak to PALS about the events that have happened and ask them to look into it. A complaint in effect.
Please make sure they only send him home when he is ready and also that any adaptations or facilities he needs are put in place in advance of him getting home. An OT / physio at the hospital should be able to sort this.
I am so sorry Lynne, what a dreadful experience for your husband, and for you, I hope he is now in a Stroke Unit and the care and recovery improves. It is horrifying what he has had to go through and I guess he will be in hospital for a while but my experience of the Stroke Unit was very good and the rehabilitation was excellent. I had 2 NHS physios who came to the house for 6 weeks, one an Occupational Therapist who sorted out useful aids for me. I then found a Neuro Physio who came every week for 2 years and she was able to bring me on leaps and bounds. The Physios push you but I am so very grateful for their help. I am 78 and married and you will need to be very patient as I am sure I could witter thinking I was never going to improve but slowly things do improve. Accept all family and friends help and look after yourselves. As Lizzie says, the Stroke Association are very helpful. A successful, speedy recovery and return home to your H
I am so sorry to read all the things that have happened to your husband and the things you have had to go through. There is much to discuss and address but perhaps we can wait until we are ready to do this.
To help you with your immediate concern, I used Google search with “accredited speech language therapists in durham” as the search criteria and this returned the below summary.
Maybe this will help you or you can do a similar search.
Northumbria Healthcare: Provides speech and language therapy for adults with various conditions (stroke, voice, etc.) in the wider North East region, including community and hospital settings.
I suggest at home some exercises like: Tongue In-and-Outs,Side-to-Side Tongue Movements,Up-and-Down Tongue Movements,Smiles,Lip Puckers,Consonant & Vowel Pairing Repetition,Sentence Production,Word Games use of some Speech Therapy Exercise Apps:Cognitive and Speech Therapy App (iOS & Android) AND ALSO Singing therapy
Hi @Lynne26 lynne I had a stroke and like your husband have to learn to speak again there is no physiological reason why I can’t just need to learn how.I’m ultimately a 14-month old baby in a 50 year old body.I recommend a free platform called beautiful voice on the internet.
Following on from @BHAGYODAY and @Mich-mm suggestion. It would help a lot if, like me, he was an avid reader before his stroke. Reading was also as big an issue as not being able to speak, writting too; they all tend to go hand in hand. So I read aloud as well as silently. Over the first year or two I went from managing a word at a time, to a sentence and then a paragraph at a time. I’m back to consuming books in a couple of evenings and speech is a whole lot better.
Don’t get me wrong, it’s nearly 5yrs since my stroke and my speech is still not 100% yet but I am clear and understandable, enough to fool the public😊 There are still some finner skills to be improved, such as the thought process, word formation and sentence construction, speeds, vocal mechanics, volume control to speech, etc still to be improved.
One thing’s for sure, there’s a heck of a lot more to speech than merely learning saying a word. When tired or brain fatigue kicks in, speech becomes slurred, the tongue, as well as the brain, become sluggish. If I’ve been silent for a couple of hours, it can take a few minutes to get the speech back up and running again. It a bit like having to wind up a gramophone Funnily enough, it’s not that way first thing in the morning though.
Typing out this post is also a lot different from speech, but that’s another story for another time. I think you’ve got enough to read and digest as it is, and I’ve get a gym class to get to
This reminds us that there is much free stuff available on the internet e.g. YouTube.
Just a quick search came up with this, but I am sure there are many more. I appreciate this might not be the same as paid private therapy - there is a saying which some subscribe to “You get what you pay for”, but I personally believe there is much generosity in the world today and I am amazed by what people are willing to share e.g. on this forum and YouTube etc.
I must add a caveat and that is to say that I have to confess I have used YouTube (not for stroke - for hobbies e.g. cooking etc. ) and some of the tips are actually rubbish - sorry to say that, but they cost nothing other than your time
Welcome to the community, I’m sorry to hear about your husband, yourself and your family have had to go through. It sounds like a really tough situation!
With regards to speech we have some information on our website you might find helpful if you’ve not read it already and @Mrs5K suggestion about calling our helpline would be of huge benefit for you as they have a wealth of knowledge and may be able to point you in the right direction for support in your area.
I’m pleased to see you’ve had some good support on here already and I hope you’ll find this community helpful for your husbands ongoing recovery. If you need anything whilst you’re using the Online Community, please don’t hesitate to tag me using the @ symbol and my username.
@Lynne26 Sue them, that is absolutely dreadful. I don’t care how senior anyone is, sue them, that’s neglect. Good luck for the future and don’t let this go
@Lynne26 - I know your immediate priority is Speech Therapy and I hope this gets sorted soon.
I agree with @IreneFC wrt to follow-on action. It really is dreadful what has happened and you have gone into a lot of detail which would help your case for legal action or at the very least a formal complaint.
The response you were given is totally unacceptable and questions have to be answered.
Again, this just does not sound right.
I think with the level of detail you have you have a very good case. It is not something anyone would want to do, but this is negligence and it should not be allowed to be practiced. IreneFC is absolutely right, seniority has nothing to do with it, in fact it would make it worse if anything.
Thank you I need the strength to takes them on my daughters are going to handle it for me. My priority is keeping myself together to get him well. The NHS Pals department have also got the information and investigating it.
That’s fine Lynne - I agree you need your strength and I know you had prioritised the Speech. As long as it is being pursued by your daughters and PALS, it will not get “forgotten”. It is a serious act of negligence and it isn’t just a single incidence.
It seems your husband is coping well with all the things that have happened to him and it’s good he his showing his emotions, his frustration and anger - this will help to put across his point of view.
Funnily enough, it’s not that way first thing in the morning though.
