Survival or Recovery in Stroke?

Take One

In this article I will demonstrate beyond any reasonable doubt that the label survivor as applied to people with stroke is inappropriate and should cease.

But overseas people use survival. I have seen two examples: –

• Neuro researcher working on lab animals and writing recovery plans, for stroke people but without any “Hands On”. So ignore it.
• Motivational worker for athletes and anyone, including stroke people, who want to improve their capacity to succeed. So ignore it.
• The overseas excursion was a sod to people who would claim that survivor was the universal standard. None of us know, nor could we.

We only have to see that survival is inappropriate in one case in Australia to know that it applies everywhere. It is easier to prove my argument if I have a replacement ready. Our friends at the Stroke Foundation can rest assured that recover missed the cut!

Background:

My recovery story is in “Recovery from Stroke”, where I don’t think I was familiar with survivor. So why does it upset me now? Because the truth matters. How can anyone give any credence to a term that applies equally to twenty days stroke people and eight hundred days stroke people? To someone stuck in a nursing home bed and someone walking up to the shopping center? Simple the term has no content and is thus meaningless.

I could say” I rest my case” here, but we still have to find a suitable replacement and hopefully cast some light on Stroke Recovery.

Take Two

In my third year of recovery I began looking for a term to describe stroke people in an accurate way. Look at this! An article titled “What is a stroke” written by a doctor and published by STROKE RECOVERY ASSOCIATION NSW. Positively bristled with the sentence, “Stroke Affected People”. Problem solved!

Angus.