Darrell Craft signs copies of his book “The Journal of a Six-Time Stroke Survivor”.
Jacob Espinosa
LIMA — Darrell Craft survived six strokes in a fifteen-month span.
On Thursday, he was able to return to Mercy Health-St. Rita’s Medical Center, where he spent time as a patient, to sign copies of his book “The Journal of a Six-Time Stroke Survivor”.
“I just never expected this whole experience that has come from this book signing,” said Craft, who worked as a social worker and psychologist before retiring and now volunteers in the Mercy Health rehabilitation unit. “It’s just been a very busy week and I just never expected any of the reception that this book has received.”
“It’s very good,” Interventional Neurologist at St. Rita’s Dr. Islam Tafish said. “It’s harvesting what we have been working on for the past two years at St. Rita’s.”
Over two years ago, the medical center did not have a stroke designation. But as of, a few weeks ago, Mercy Health-St. Rita’s is a Comprehensive Stroke Center, the highest level of stroke certification.
For patients like Craft, that makes it all the likelier that they will survive their symptoms.
“I’m just floored by the result of this and how wonderful my volunteer experience has been here and I can’t thank them enough,” he said of the treatment he received at the medical center. “It’s been wonderful.”
For outpatient therapy manager at Mercy Health-St. Rita’s Christina Bender, Craft’s story is just another example of the benefits of learning from the experiences of patients.
“We know so much and we can read so much from a medical perspective about strokes and what it feels like, but when somebody is in that journey, their experience and the learnings you can take from that is invaluable,” she said. “So, I think that anytime you have an opportunity to gain perspective from somebody who’s living it, there’s just immeasurable learning that you can help somebody else with that. We need to capitalize on those opportunities to learn when somebody can share that with us.”
It all starts with educating the community about how to identify stroke symptoms and take them seriously.
“We have a long way and journey because it’s day and night depending on how long it takes to treat the symptoms,” Tafish said. “We still see the patient that says they will just sleep it off when they have symptoms and that’s what we want to work on changing and with the help of the media and education, we can help people realize how important it is to come to the ER.”
It was not always so certain that Craft would recover, however.
“Never give up, no matter how hard it seems. There was once a point where I was in the hospital in Toledo and I thought I was going to be in the hospital bed for life,” he said. “You’ve just got to keep pushing and walking, whatever it takes.”
Craft said that his doctors did not want him to practice walking, but that he would practice alongside his bed in case of a fall anyway.
“I was safe like they wanted me to be, but I kept pressing forward and that’s what people need to do, no matter how bad it is,” he said.
One thing kept Craft going when he could not walk and suffered from double vision, in addition to the treatment and change in lifestyle: his faith.
“Keep up the hope that it’s not over if you work at it,” he said. “Your faith is a big part of it, probably bigger than people think anymore.”
“It’s a miracle, and it’s a very good miracle,” Tafish said. “This is the reward that we get after working on a patient if we see the recovery. This is a very bad disease that we deal with and the significance of the morbidity and handicap situation is huge and very rewarding to see a patient recovering and able to function as normally as possible.”
Tafish said that the most important way to spot changes in the baseline neurological condition that can signal a stroke is by using the F.A.S.T. method, which advises you to spot an abnormality in the face (F), weakness or droopiness in the arm (A), problems with speech (S) and to not waste time (T) in getting help.
“Get the attention of someone around you if you are feeling stroke symptoms,” he added. “If no one is around, call 911. And actually, that is preferred because the ambulance is faster and that’s very helpful. Paramedics can also alert the stroke team on their way into the hospital so that we are ready for them when they come.”
“The Journal of a Six-Time Stroke Survivor” is available on Amazon and other booksellers.
According to the medical center, stroke is the fifth leading cause of death and the leading cause of disability in the United States.
Reach Jacob Espinosa at 567-242-0399.
