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Jim Turner (front row, second from right) with fellow members of the weekly group at Hunter Street Health Centre. Also on the front row: Marilyn Power, Dave Jenkinson and David Epstein. Back row, from left: Srdjan Krstanovic, Ali Rustum, Stanley Dent, Kichka Fridman, support co-ordinator Patte Pentecost Eden, and volunteer Belen Lopez |
Stroke victim sings the praises of coach who helps restore speech
Weekly group meeting works on developing communication, from the verbal to gestures
JOURNALIST and stroke patient Jean-Dominique Dauby spoke volumes through his language therapist by dictating the stunning 130-page book, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, using a total of 200,000 blinks.
Jim Turner, 74, does not suffer the same immobility as Dauby but he has reaped the rewards of receiving help with communication after suffering a stroke.
He joins other stroke sufferers in Camden and Islington at the Hunter Street Health Centre, in Bloomsbury, for weekly group meetings run by voice coach Patte Pentecost Eden.
Mr Turner, a former central London bus driver, was diagnosed with heart disease and underwent a quadruple heart bypass at the Whittington Hospital in 2000. He suffered a stroke during the operation.
Bypass surgery involves surgeons removing one or more blood vessels from elsewhere in the body and grafting them to arteries serving the heart, rerouting blood around blockages.
Seventy-five per cent of bypass patients must have their heart stopped during the procedure and are put on a heart-lung machine. This carries a small risk of stroke since a momentary pause in the blood flow to the brain can be as disastrous as a pause in blood flow to the heart.
Mr Turner was in a coma for three weeks while his wife and four adult children rallied round, talking to him and tickling his feet.
Mr Turner said: “I was out cold for three weeks but my daughter-in-law somehow thought she could rouse me by talking to me. Afterwards she would ask questions like ‘Did you feel me tickling your feet’, which of course I didn’t. I was unconscious.”
The former soldier, who lives in Essex Road, Highbury, believes having a morbid sense of humour has helped him through heartbreak of losing his mobility and speech.
Born in Scotland to a prison officer, his national pride is expressed through a number plate on the back of his wheelchair reading “Jock”, a slang reference to his Highland roots.
Instead of using his stair lift in his previous Hackney home he would try and scale the stairs on his own.
“It’s good to try to do things you can’t do easily,” he said. “But I did my back in bumping up and down the stairs.”
He also recommends stroke victims to seek the help of language specialists who are trained to tutor patients recover their speech.
Mr Turner was referred to Ms Pentecost Eden’s weekly sessions by his speech and language therapist, but people can also contact the service themselves.
He said: “It’s something to look forward to. It gets you out of the house.”
The group play blow-football (blowing balloons across the room with straws), enjoy Italian food days, group quizzes and games that can be played through gesture or drawing.
Many members said they had noticed improvements in their speech and movement since attending the workshops.
Ms Pentecost Eden said: “Sometimes people will not improve. We provide the support people need to ease their path.
“The focus of our work is communication, a necessary part of life, and just as likely to be non-verbal.”
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