Sometimes art can help our friends and family understand our lives when we cannot. We're all too close to our own situations to adequately explain them. I'm gradually working my way through a list of stroke related movies. It's not always easy to watch them, but they are often rewarding. This week, I talk about 2 of them.
My Beautiful Broken Brain
This film chronicle the life of film producer Lotje Sodderland in the year after her stroke. We see her struggle with language, improve, decline, and generally come to terms with her new way of seeing and communicating with the world.
The Diving Bell and the Butterfly
This film is "based on a true story."
It's based on a book written by Jean-Dominique Bauby, the former editor of Elle magazine in Paris, and it's his memoir.
Bauby suffered a stroke while at the peak of his professional life. When he woke from a coma, he had Locked-In Syndrome. He had all his cognitive abilities but he couldn't speak and he couldn't move. He couldn't communicate with the world outside his body.
Eventually, he was able to communicate by blinking his left eye. And that's how he dictated his book.
#JusticeForJoe
A few weeks ago, I spoke with Joe Borges from The NeuroNerds on this show. You can hear that episode here.
Recently, Joe shared the story of his care at Valley Presbyterian Hospital in Van Nuys, CA. Basically, when he was a patient, they lost him.
The administered significant narcotics to a brain injury/brain surgery survivor and ignored him. Completely not in his right mind, Joe got up in the middle of the night, got dressed -- sort of -- wandered by the empty nurses station, and eventually encountered a security guard who ignored Joe's fall-risk bracelets, obvious head wound, and told him to leave.
Joe wandered the streets of Van Nuys in the middle of the night for hours with no memory of what he did or what happened to him. Eventually, his sister found him.
Joe has significant post traumatic stress from the incident and the hospital is convinced they did nothing wrong.
Check out the full story here or just play the episode below. And let Valley Presbyterian know your thoughts. (Twitter: http://twitter.com/VPHCares)
Hack of the Week
Hemiparesis can make it hard to shake hands. The cane is in my right, and there not a whole lot I can so with the left one yet.
The fist bump is a great alternative. I find I can do a right-handed fist bump while holding my cane. I can do a left handed one if I concentrate.
It's a nice, simple way to engage in social protocol despite my disabilities.
Where do we go from here?
- Watch "My Beautiful Broken Brain" and "The Diving Bell and the Butterfly."
- Check out Joe's story at http://Strokecast.com/JusticeForJoe
- Share this episode with the movie lover in your life by giving them the link http://Strokecast.com/movies
- Subscribe to Strokecast for free in your favorite podcast app so you never miss an episode
- Don't get best...get better.
Strokecast is the stroke podcast where a Gen X stroke survivor explores rehab, recovery, the frontiers of neuroscience and one-handed banana peeling by helping stroke survivors, caregivers, medical providers and stroke industry affiliates connect and share their stories.
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