Deal resident pushing to regain his speech and mobility, after a stroke in 2019 left him with Locked In Syndrome

KentOnline / KMTV

Jeff Brown's life changed when, suddenly, his body was completely paralysed, yet he was fully conscious and aware inside, only able to communicate through eye movements.  Meghan Shaw reports

Transcript

00:00Imagine suffering a life-changing stroke that leaves you unable to move a muscle,

00:05all while being fully conscious and aware of your surroundings.

00:09This is what happened to Jeff in 2019 when a stroke left him with locked-in syndrome,

00:15only able to move his eyes. Jeff and I met in 2010 and we married in 2016.

00:21In 2019, Jeff had a very unexpected sudden brain stem stroke. He collapsed while he was at his yard.

00:32He was airlifted to King's where they discovered a day or so later that he had a brain stem stroke

00:41and the damage was bad. Now, there's a common misconception around those with locked-in

00:47syndrome that they'll be like that for life. But change is possible as Jeff and many others are

00:52living proof of. Jeff's family and his carers both believe Jeff could be able to get his voice back.

01:00Before his life changed, Jeff was an avid motorcycle fan and the fight to get back on his bike one day

01:07continues. Ever since working here and working with Jeff, every week there's something else that Jeff

01:14manages to achieve. He, you know, his levels of trying to progress and progress and progress,

01:22just get more and more each time. He doesn't want to just do little movements, there's bigger movements

01:28and, you know, the same with his voice, his legs and yeah, as I say, I was quite naive coming in at first

01:34but as you see Jeff doing so well and progressing, he just wants it more and more and so do you.

01:44In 2020, his family raised money to fund a specialist physiotherapy bank for him and now,

01:50Jeff is embarking on the final push to speak again for the first time in six years.

01:56We can access more rehabilitation for him to be able to really push him and get him where he needs to be.

02:05I feel if he could have intense therapy every single day or at least three, four times a week,

02:12he can really push himself to where he can actually get back on those motorbikes and can actually,

02:17he's got a life now, just not the life that he wants or wishes for.

02:24But with so much uncertainty, how does the family stay positive?

02:29So if we forget to keep his head straight or if we don't pay attention in time, we get fines now.

02:34Two pounds a pound?

02:36Two pounds a pound.

02:37Through humour and remembering they have each other.

02:40Megan Shaw for Kame TV in Deal.

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