Intense therapy helps stroke victim swallow again

ROAD TO RECOVERY: Gerard McMullan had a brainstem stroke in 2012 which stopped him from being able to swallow and drink. PHOTO/RUTH KEBER

When Gerard McMullan suffered a stroke in 2012, the retired Tauranga man thought he would never be able to swallow again.

But months of intense therapy and swallowing rehabilitation meant the 75-year-old was slowly able to regain the skills he learned as a child.

Next week marks New Zealand Speech Language Therapy Awareness Week with this year's theme as access for all.

Brookfield resident Mr McMullan said he was trying to get into bed that night in 2012 when he had trouble standing upright.

"I kept falling to my right. I didn't know what was going on."

Mr McMullan said the experience was not painful, he was "giddy" and he knew there was something wrong. He never imagined he would be having a stroke. He quickly rang a friend who took him to the hospital, where he was diagnosed with a brainstem stroke.

He lost his ability to swallow things straight away, he said.

... the muscle at the top of the oesophagus was slammed shut. So anything he ate or drank went down to the lungs

Hazel Gray, speech language therapist

Speech-language therapist from Bay of Plenty DHB Hazel Gray explained the muscles in Mr McMullan's throat were frozen after the stroke.

"You have your airway down the front and your oesophagus down the back [of the throat], so the muscle at the top of the oesophagus was slammed shut. So anything he ate or drank went down to the lungs," she said.

Mr McMullan said he did not know what caused the stroke and was very scared at the time that he would never be able to swallow again.

"Straight away I couldn't swallow ... I thought I would have the PEG (percutaneous endoscopic gastrotomy) in for the rest of my life," Mr McMullan said.

He had the PEG placed in his stomach so he could feed himself internally.

But soon after the incident he committed to intense therapy and swallowing rehabilitation five days a week and started learning to gulp again. As he got stronger he was able to decrease the sessions and after nine months of dedication and hard work could eat and drink normally. Today he has regained 90 per cent usage of his throat.

Mr McMullan was grateful for the speech-therapy programme and therapist through Tauranga Hospital and could not have got through without it, he said.

Raising awareness

* New Zealand Speech Language Therapy Awareness Week is from September 13 to 20.

* New Zealand has approximately 300,000 people affected by communication disability. The impact of this on such people and their whanau is widespread and can be devastating. Many people who experience communication disability also have swallowing difficulties. New Zealand needs to be utilising the skills of highly trained professionals, speech-language therapists to improve the lives of these New Zealanders.

* This year's theme is access for all. The key messages are: key populations who could benefit from speech-language therapy have limited access to funded services. Everyone has the right to communicate. Speech, language, communication and literacy are essential for life success.