Health Essentials - Fall 2010 - Euclid - (Page 6)

Step by step May 14, 2009, is a day that Tara Kuchenbecker can remember as vividly as if it were a television show she had recorded on her DVR, because she can remember it at any time. It was a Thursday evening. Tara and her husband, Ken, were relaxing at home after work. Ken headed to the back yard to chop wood for their fire pit. Tara picked up the phone to call her mother to talk. Suddenly, Tara felt sick to her stomach. She abruptly ended the conversation telling her mother that she had to go because she did not feel well. Her mother sensed something was wrong and told her to tell Ken. Tara knew there wasn’t time and ran to the bathroom. Ken found Tara passed out and having a seizure. He called 9-1-1 and the paramedics arrived shortly after. “It was surreal,” Tara says. “I could hear the paramedics, but I couldn’t see them. I was picturing them and what they were doing, but I couldn’t answer them. Then I blacked out,” she recalls. tara Kuchenbecker, stroke survivor, is surrounded by her euclid Hospital health care and rehabilitation team. From left: speech therapist susan Waizenhofer, MA, CCC-sLP; tara Kuchenbecker; physician Lynn Jedlicka, MD; and physical therapy coordinator Dianne Vermilya. By Helen Curak Diagnosing tara Tara was taken to Hillcrest Hospital where a CT scan showed she had an aneurysm that had erupted in her brain—Tara had a stroke. She was 40 years old. A decision was made to transfer Tara to Cleveland Clinic where she underwent a six-hour surgery to remove a portion of her skull, which was frozen and replaced at a later date, to relieve the pressure on her brain. “When I woke up from surgery I was piecing things together. So many thoughts were racing through my head. ‘What hospital am I in? Why am I here? What is going on?’ But I wasn’t able to speak to verbalize my feelings,” recalls Tara. All of a sudden Tara felt like she had reverted to being “a baby.” She says, “People would tell me things over and FALL 2010 tara Kuchenbecker makes a presentation to the stroke support group 13 months after surviving a stroke. 6 HeALtH essentiALs

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Health Essentials - Fall 2010 - Euclid

Health Essentials - Fall 2010 - Euclid
Contents
A Message from the President of Euclid Hospital
A Support Group for Stroke Survivors
Born for the Role
Rehabilitation Therapy Can Restore Your Skills After aTrauma
Don’t Miss Our Upcoming Health Care Events

Health Essentials - Fall 2010 - Euclid