Andrew’s story is a 360 degree view of therapy at the Care and Rehabilitation Centre, including videos showing the impact neurological music therapy had for him during his physiotherapy sessions, as part of a multi-disciplinary approach. Read Andrew’s story, an overview from his speech and language therapist and feedback from Andrew’s family as well.
Andrew’s story
“I had haemorrhagic stroke on 1st December, while on holiday in Cyprus. I was airlifted back home to the UK with Medivac on a commercial flight in mid February. I was admitted to Chelsea and Westminster Hospital for assessment and referral to a rehabilitation unit. This is how my journey with QEF began when I arrived here on 5th April.
My rehab here has mainly been focused on my walking, as the whole of the right side of my body has been affected, including my speech, however this is becoming more fluent with the support of the Speech and Language therapist.
I have been working with the physiotherapy team who have been focusing on the building blocks required to walk, as I wasn’t able to do that when I came here, but now I can walk with the walker. As part of the physio sessions there was also music therapy, where they would strum the guitar to the rhythm I was walking to, which I really enjoyed. It also encouraged me to think and talk about music and the Speech and Language team even got me singing along to help my speech.
Watch Andrew’s physiotherapy progressions
- Andrew’s physio session prior to NMT
- Andrews physiotherapy with a drum beat
- Andrews physiotherapy with a guitar
- Andrew walking with minimal physio assistance after NMT
I’ve been very successful with the Speech and Language team – so much so, that as one of my goals, I worked on a presentation about why I love London. I presented this to all of my therapy team and family and had lots of very positive feedback.
The Occupational Therapy team have also given me a lot of support. Activities like going out to the barbers regularly and we’d go food shopping as well, after which we’d come back and cook the stuff here. I was cooking at 5-6 years old as my father was a restauranteur, so cooking has been in my family for a long time, it’s my passion. Thanks to the OT team here, I can now get in and out of a saloon car which has really opened my life up again.
It’s been excellent at QEF. All the therapy things were good. All the staff were good, the cleaners, the food, everyone and my therapy plan was good. I’ve achieved a lot, it hasn’t been wasted, my time has been fruitful. Thank you.”
Fiona, Andrew’s Speech and Language therapist
Andrew had a diagnosis of mild – moderate expressive aphasia as well as cognitive communication difficulties. With his aphasia he had difficulty with his language output – producing grammatical sentences and just generally reduced output in his language, but it’s got a lot better. He was a lot less fluent.
We have been doing a lot of language work together – building sentences using VNeST therapy as well as some narrative therapy. His language has improved significantly, and this was reflected in his scores, with tests such as measuring how well he can describe a picture.
Andrew had several short- and long-term goals and he has achieved them all. One was developing and then giving a presentation on why he likes London so much, which he did really well, using a big screen to an audience of his family and the therapy team.
His other long-term goal was to plan and book an outing for family and friends; making the booking, budgeting and managing the timings. He told his sister all the times for the reservation and sorted out the details of transport, it went very well, and this completed his final goal.
Julia – Andrew’s sister
“You have all been just amazing to Andrew and to us as his family, during a very difficult time. We will never forget the kindness of every single member of the team at QEF for their patience, assurance and generous spirit while looking after our loved one. I can only hope that Andrew will make such good connections as he moves forward with his journey to recovery.”
