Striking Back at Stroke: A Doctor-Patient Journal

At age 43, Cleo Hutton awoke to a frightening and completely unfamiliar world. In the prime of life, she experienced a devastating stroke. Suddenly unable to speak, understand, or even walk, Hutton found herself struggling first to survive and then to regain her physical skills and her independence.

Striking Back at Stroke is Hutton's personal journal during this trying time, detailing her hard-won success rebuilding a life in ruins and overcoming difficulties she never imagined confronting. Using a tape recorder and a notebook by her bedside where family, friends, and hospital staff could write messages, Hutton kept a record of the day-to-day emotional, physical, and financial trauma of her condition. Hutton's account of her experiences is interwoven with medical and scientific commentary by Louis Caplan, M.D., who explains Hutton's case in terms of what scientists and doctors have come to know about strokes. He documents in a clear, concise manner what actually happens before, during, and after a stroke—as Hutton in turn lives and documents her experience. Caplan also focuses his observations on how the medical system served her, as well as on the shattering effects a stroke can have on the families of patients.

Both authors give valuable advice—about home care, emotional support, and physical recovery—from the frontlines of the battle against stroke. These two wise and experienced voices make Striking Back at Stroke a wrenching and inspiring personal story as well as an indispensable guide for anyone enduring the cataclysmic changes that a stroke can bring to a life, a family, and a sense of self.