Dr. Shawn Jennings MD

I was a 46-year-old male physician, when I had my brainstem stroke. I was subsequently 'Locked In' for months; as many of you know, that means paralysis on both sides of the body, no speech or swallowing ability, and no facial muscle movement. The eyelids offered me my only voluntary movement. My cognitive ability was fine.

The stroke arose from a dissection (tear) of the inner lining of my left vertebral artery. That tear arose from a simple whiplash two weeks before.

I avoided an accident-a truck pulled out in front of me. I thought nothing of it, until, that afternoon an ache arose from the back of my neck. I assumed it was a whiplash, and treated myself over the next two weeks with heat and Advil. (You know-'Physician heal thyself'-yeah right!)

A week prior to my stroke, I had a bout of severe vertigo, and ended up in Emergency. I have a problem with chronic fluid in my middle ear, and the Doc thought this was the probable cause of the vertigo. I mentioned the whiplash, and asked if he could see a connection; he couldn't and neither could I. But I felt uneasy and secretly wished for more investigation, but I was a patient now, so I kept my mouth shut.

I continued to be a bit off-balance, despite having my ear drained, so one day while I was seeing my patients in hospital, I mentioned my symptoms to a neurologist friend of mine. He did a cursory exam and thought something wasn't quite right either. He thought we should get a CT scan.

It probably wouldn't have shown anything, but in any case, we were not aware of the urgency, because three days later I had my stroke.

In Emergency, bad luck continued to follow me. I lapsed into a coma just as I entered the department; if I had been awake, I could have told them I was having a stroke. Bad luck-the first CT scan was negative, because I was so deep in coma, my head shook, resulting in a poor picture.

Hours went by while they watched blood results, and took other tests; hours my brainstem could ill afford, as it was being starved for blood and oxygen.

After a few hours, a neurologist came, declared me locked in, and arranged an arteriogram, where upon tPA was given. It opened the artery 25% before it started to bleed, and they had to abandon the procedure.

I as given Heparin, sent upstairs to ICU, but prognosis was poor: death was a definite possibility.

I did awake-'locked in'-but alive.

I spent ten months in rehabilitation. And as I'm writing this, it will be my fourth anniversary in May.

I can eat everything now-I have to be careful, but I can eat! I speak a sort of 'Drunkenese', as though I've had a few, with low volume. My left arm is functional; my right spastic, but I can write with it. My trunk is spastic. After two years I finally took my first step! And it continues to improve. I still need a minimum assist with the walker, as my balance is not great.

I wrote a book-"Locked In Locked Out"-to create something positive out of a negative situation. I try to point out to my fellow survivor that bad things happen-it isn't fair, but there is no fairness in this world. I try to convey to them, to accept, but never, ever, give up.

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