this is a story about my father bob. He suffered a brain stem stroke on 30th June 2001. He had been suffering with dissy spells and pins and kneedles all over his body and a few times after waking in the morning he couldn't bend to pick up his clothes, he felt he had no control over his body. The doctor told him he was suffering with inner ear problems and sent him home with tablets. Looking back he was suffering with classic stroke symptoms, but as we had no knowledge of strokes we had to keep going back to the doctor for information. My father had suffered with high blood pressure, high cholestrol, he smoked and drank frequently, he also had a job which entailed sitting for long hours in one place. It took almost 2 months of suffering before my father was taken into hospital. He had various tests and was told that he had been having mini strokes and was sent home again with tablets, this time they were aspirin 1 a day. Within two weeks later he had a major stroke and developed pneumonia overnight wilst in hospital. While he was almost unconsious he then suffered a brain stem stroke which is one of the cruellest things anyone could ever go through. He is now paralised from his neck down, he has a tracheostomy fitted, he cannot drink or eat, he has had a tube put into his stomach through which he is fed. He has maintained the movement of the muscles on his face and that is the only way of communicating with us. We have been told that his future is not going to improve much if anything,my mother and I have been reading into the stem cell research, we cannot accept that this is how he is going to stay so if there is hope out there concerning these stem cells then we want to know everything there is to know.We are determined not to stop hoping.What do we have to lose.

Email Robert