Four years ago, Greg was the operations manager at a logging yard in Dunedin. He was walking out the door of his office with a coffee when he collapsed. A co-worker called the ambulance.
His partner, Mireka Van Looys, said he was in a coma for more than eight days. He was diagnosed with aphasia - the partial or total loss of the ability to articulate thoughts and ideas or comprehend spoken or written language, resulting from damage to the brain caused by stroke, injury or disease.
``We were told to prepare for the worst-case scenario and be ready to come into the hospital in case he passed away,'' Ms Van Looys said.
``All of a sudden, we walked in and he was starting to open his eyes. He was very unresponsive. Every now and then he would squeeze our hands but he was blank.''
``Warren used to ask Greg to point to things in his office but Greg would just sit there,'' Ms Van Looys said.
``One day Warren grabbed his hand and showed him how to point with it - all of a sudden it was like it all clicked ...
``Greg has a real sweet tooth and outside the speech therapy room there was a vending machine. We walked past and the first thing he did was start pointing at the chocolate. He could finally communicate what he wanted.''
There were times when attempting to communicate was extremely frustrating.
``We made him a photo collage and put it on top of his wardrobe. For three weeks he kept pointing at me and saying `that wall'. That was all he could say and he would get really worked up and frustrated, but I couldn't understand what he meant. I was beside myself ...
``One day I was cleaning up his room. The collage had slipped behind his wardrobe, so he couldn't see it.
``I picked it up and you should've seen the relief on his face.
``This was what he had been trying to tell me for three weeks.''
Four years on, Mr Abbott is slowly getting his speech back. He attends the Dunedin Aphasia Support Group, set up by Alison Zani, which celebrates its two-year anniversary this month.
Ms Zani said she and some other speech language therapists set up the support group because they were aware there was a big gap in the community for stroke survivors with speech and language difficulties.
``Aphasia doesn't affect intelligence, which is very important to be aware of, because people with aphasia are often mistakenly thought to be cognitively impaired when they're not. I usually describe it like being in a foreign country where you don't speak the language. You're still just as intelligent as you usually are, but you don't know what people are saying to you and you can't get them to understand you when you speak,'' she said.
One of the main reasons for setting up the support group was people with aphasia were at extremely high risk of becoming socially isolated, ``often because they are embarrassed by their communication difficulty and because other people get embarrassed by it, too''.
The group meets every second Friday at the Mornington Community Centre in Maryhill Tce. It is a relaxed and friendly environment where people can socialise and share their experiences.
Mrs Van Looys said Mr Abbott got very upset whenever he could not make it to a meeting.
``It helps with his communicating, it's a safe environment and there are no social pressures. Being in social situations can be really overwhelming for him, because if there is too much going on, he can't follow the conversation. The support group is great for his confidence,'' she said.
Mr Abbott said his speech was improving but ``easy does it''. While his life had changed and there had been tough times, the most important thing to him was he could see his ``three beautiful children'' grow up.
Aphasia facts
• Aphasia is the loss of a previously held ability to express or understand spoken or written language, due to disease or injury to the language area of the brain. The ability to use gestures and numbers can also be affected.
• The experience of aphasia differs for each person. It can vary from mild difficulties finding words, or reading text, to severe difficulties understanding what other people are saying, and being unable to speak.
• Aphasia is not a loss of intelligence.
• Aphasia can affect people of any age.
• At least 16,000 New Zealanders live with stroke-acquired aphasia.
• Every day, as a result of a stroke, six or seven people in New Zealand will develop aphasia.
• Head injury is the second-most common cause of aphasia. It can also be acquired because of a brain tumour or brain disease.
Source: www.aphasia.org.nz
- by David Beck
