UMAP Featured in The Livingston Community News
U-M program helps stroke victim recover | June 24,
2009
by Lisa Carolin | The Livingston Community
News
Terri Thompson was working out at a gym with her sister in
January 2007 when her world suddenly changed.
Thompson, 49, of Putnam Township, suffered a stroke and,
although she received medical attention quickly, she couldn't move
her right arm and leg, and she couldn't speak. This loss of
speech is called aphasia, a language disorder resulting from damage
to parts of the brain. Thompson could comprehend what was going on
and she knew what she wanted to say, but just couldn't speak the
words.
"It was so frustrating," she said.
Thompson spent two-and-a-half months in the hospital and her
husband, Ken, was afraid she might never speak again.
"Before the stroke, Terri talked to people all over the world
working in marketing and sales for a software company," he said.
"Her ability to talk to people was her forte."
Thompson spent a year in physical therapy, eventually
regaining the use of her right leg and the ability to drive. She's
still making slow progress on the use of her right arm.
A year after the stroke, Thompson entered the University of
Michigan Aphasia Program, an intensive six-week program of
six-hour-a-day, five-day-a-week work that she repeats.
Continue reading the article at
mlive.com.
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