"A heart attack took away my speech and another gave me back"

In 2014, Peter lost the ability to speak after a stroke. He was 73 years old.

But one morning, earlier this year, woke up to be able to talk again.

Shortly after, he discovered that he had had another heart attack.

Could it be the heart attack that made the speech?

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The day Peter found his speech, he was on vacation in Devon (England) with his family

" I woke up as usual, Carol was on the other side of the bed, I got up and started talking to her as if nothing had happened. "

"She was stunned.He said: Peter! You Speak!"

Carol remembers that he had encouraged her to keep talking in case he loses his speech.

His son Jonathan, who was in the next room, heard two people talking and hurried into the room.

"What's going on, mom?" he asked. "Who is this deep voice?"

"Your father is talking!", Replied Carol.

"We all started crying and laughing at the same time. It was very moving because we had not heard his voice for so long" .

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The shock was such that no one can remember the words spoken by Peter in four years.

At the hospital

Everyone went out to celebrate, but soon, Carol realized that The left side of Peter's mouth was down.

Later, he began to complain of a weak leg. He had trouble walking and his son Jonathan had to hold him in his arms.

They took a taxi to the nearest hospital, where they had a CT scan that confirmed had another stroke.

Fortunately, ] the negative effects were only temporary this time.

Peter's mouth returned to normal and his legs stopped hurting him. And a few months later, he is still able to speak.

The couple is convinced that this second heart attack "unblocks" something in Peter's brain, something that prevented him from speaking since the first heart attack. 19659005] However, Alex Leff, a professor of cognitive neurology and expert in language recovery after stroke or brain injury, is not so convinced of this theory.

"The brain is like a red and a feature" brings out "some of the knots of the language of the network."

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"In many cases, patients reorient certain language functions using what is left in the brain, but when they have had serious language problems, like Peter, this tends to be a slow process , not sudden. "

According to the doctor, Peter's case is very rare.

Aphasia

• Aphasia is the technical term for language or language difficulties that a person may experience after a stroke or other brain injury.
• There are several different types.
• People with Broca aphasia (or non-fluid aphasia) can only use expressions of less than four words and even this requires a lot of effort. The person may well understand the speech and can read, but his writing is usually limited
• People with anomic aphasia have difficulty finding the words of the things they want to speak or write, especially nouns and verbs. They understand speech and, in general, read well.
• Peter, on the other hand, had no problem reading or writing during the four years he could not speak.

The First Heart Attack

Carol J was with Peter when he had his first heart attack.

They were gone, but Peter did not feel well, so Carol brought them back.

"I asked him what time he was and he did not answer me, I asked him again and nothing, something was wrong. When you've been married to someone since 52 years old, you know something is wrong "says Carol.

Then, over a period of several weeks, Peter gradually felt his talent to speak, he disappeared.

"It was getting harder and harder for me to have an adequate conversation," he says. "I had trouble finding the words and I could not say a whole sentence."

"In the end, it's impossible for me to speak, I can only say " yes "and" no "and sometimes a very short sentence." [19659005] Carol found it distressing to see her husband, a retired engineer whom she describes as an "intelligent and eloquent man", unable to speak.

The whole family shares this anguish.

Conversations

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Although he is unable to form words, Peter says that he was always able to understand everyone's conversation

"I always knew exactly what was going on around from me. It's horrible not being able to converse with people. "says Peter.

The couple is developing a system to communicate with each other.

Carol asked yes / no questions and Peter answered with a thumbs up or down gesture. He also had a pencil and notebook to write what he meant.

Peter is very interested in photography, so if they go to a camera store and want to ask a technical question, he wrote it in advance.

During his years of silence, Peter often spent the day reading or working on mathematical models. Carol remembers that she always wrote algorithms and equations in notebooks.

Peter says the relief of being able to talk again is overwhelming. One almost speaks in tears

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"Missing"

"Being able to communicate with other people is part of the human being, if you can not speak, you will lose a lot of yourself." My family felt that they had disappeared . "

" You can not transmit true emotions if you can not say yes or no . "

His family tried to include him in conversations and make him laugh, but it was not the same.

• How I confused a heart attack with a indigestion

What cost him the most is to listen to people to say things with which he does not agree.

"I found very frustrating not being able to participate in the discussions was like losing everything, "says Peter.

Once he was able to speak, his first big debate with his friends was about Brexit ." They told me: "I'm glad you're back!"

Peter's speech is almost perfect, apart from some difficulties when he's tired the But everyone commented that his accent had changed.

"People say that my accent is much more elegant," says Peter.

Carol admits she was tell he is used to speaking for him that must now get used to it. Back to Peter who speaks for himself.

"It's a habit," she says. "I have to learn to shut up! I've had a monopoly in recent years."

But both worry that Peter may again lose his speech.

"It's like a clock that works after being hammered. I could have another shot and stop working anytime ," says Peter.

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