Watching Cyril Edwards busily shuck oysters at The Oyster Hut in Tea Gardens, he seems to be leading a perfectly healthy and active life. It was only months ago however that Cyril suffered a severe and debilitating stroke.
While a stroke generally results in years of rigorous rehabilitation and significant lifestyle changes, Cyril miraculously returned to work just 4 days after experiencing a stroke.
This incredible recovery was due to Chris Levi’s remarkable research.
“By the time I had arrived at John Hunter Hospital I had no feeling down the right side of my body and was quickly loosing sensation in the left, I was also losing my ability to speak,” Cyril said.
“Chris Levi and his team were waiting for me in the emergency department, they explained the details of the stroke research and the clot-busting therapy. My wife Jeanette and I agreed to proceed with it immediately”.
Dr Levi’s treatment was so successful it began reducing Cyril’s stroke symptoms within just an hour and by the next morning he began to gain the feeling back in his arms and legs. However the most astonishing improvement was yet to come, by the very next day Cyril was walking unassisted.
“It wasn’t until I got up and began walking around the stroke ward that I realised just how big of a deal it all was. All the other men who had similar strokes to mine were physically immobile, that was when it really hit home,” Cyril said.
“Until I saw the impact that a stroke usually I didn’t understand just how lucky I was to be intersected by Dr Levi. Without that treatment I may be still lying on a bed”.
“Clot-busting therapy for acute stroke is one of our few effective treatments and by far the most powerful. It can only be delivered, however, in expert centres and is restricted to the first few hours after the onset of the stroke,” Dr Levi said.
“One of the most important health systems research projects the HMRI Stroke Research Group is running is the rural pre-hospital acute stroke triage (rural PAST) project,” “Rural PAST is evaluating a new system of care to provide access for rural stroke patients to clot busting drug treatment. Cyril is part of the Rural PAST study and we are delighted with his outcome and his great progress.”
Cyril has now returned back to his energetic life running The Oyster Hut with his family.
“We live in very exciting times, medically and technologically the world it becoming a wonderful place because of people like Chris Levi,” Cyril said.
