Benefit to help local regain speech

Wine tasting, silent auction and more to fund therapy for local surfer who lost ability to talk after stroke, collapse. For more than 20 years, he was part of staff at Hi-Time cellars.
By Brianna Bailey

Updated: Saturday, September 26, 2009 8:27 PM PDT
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For weeks, nobody knew exactly what happened in the minutes before Newport Beach resident Alan Halderman collapsed on a dock in Catalina, where he was vacationing, after suffering a massive stroke.

Halderman, 53, was wearing swim trunks when he collapsed and had left his wallet back on his boat, anchored just off shore.

The stroke damaged the part of Halderman’s brain that governs communication, leaving him with a disorder known as aphasia.

Halderman couldn’t tell anyone who he was or what had happened, because he couldn’t talk....NEXT....

Aphasia In-Service Training

A few weeks ago I put together some materials for an in-service training on aphasia. I wanted to share it for those who are looking for an in-service to perform, or for those who would like to learn a little more about it.

Understanding and Working with Aphasia

Presented By: Justin Zarb

Aphasia: Quick Fact Sheet

Who Gets Aphasia and What Causes It?

• By far the most common cause of aphasia is stroke. However, any disease or injury that damages brain tissue can cause aphasia (head injury, aneurysm, brain tumors). It is estimated that about 20% of individuals who suffer a stroke will also incur a serious loss of speech and language.

What is Aphasia?

• Aphasia is a total or partial loss of the ability to communicate whether through listening and understanding, speaking, gesturing, reading, or writing.

When Does Aphasia Onset? When Does Aphasia Get Treated?

• Within hours of recovering from a stroke, aphasia will usually become evident if there has been sufficient brain damage. Sometimes the aphasia will be hard to detect if it is a non-oral form such as reading, writing, or gesturing. A trained speech pathologist should perform an evaluation for the stroke victim.
• Treatment for aphasia can begin immediately with speech therapy. If therapy is available, almost all aphasic patients will improve their use of language. Some individuals who are very impaired in the first few days can go on to a full (of almost full) recovery within a few months. Typically, therapy only produces results within the first 12 months after the onset of aphasia.

Where In the Brain Does the Damage Occur?......next.....

Q & A: Tennessee Reed

Authors Ishmael Reed and Tennessee Reed (Photo courtesy: Red Room)

Sometimes, a diagnosis can mean the end of the road. In the case of Tennessee Reed, the daughter of choreographer Carla Blank and writer Ishmael Reed, it was a new beginning. By the time she was two, she had been diagnosed with a speech and language-based learning disorder. Over time, names like Aphasia, Dyscalculia, and Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder entered her vocabulary and her life. But she learned to deal with all the labels and disorders she had been overwhelmed with. Even though experts had predicted she would never be able to read or write, she was authoring poetry books by the time she was in her teens. She went on to get a graduate degree from Mills College, write five books of poetry, and most recent next......

Living with Aphasia:

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• Living with Aphasia:

  We meet the remarkable Scottish Blues singer overcoming communication problems caused by a stroke through music..

http://video.stv.tv/bc/tv-thefivethirtyshow-20080122-living-with-aphasia/

Video in Scottish have Aphasia

Des Moines teen helps dad deal with stages of living

Joseph Kearney crinkles the corner of his mouth and thumbs through the list of medical terms he must know for a test the next week.

Aphasia. It's a sudden inability to understand words, caused by disease or brain injury.

This is how the husky, soft-spoken 17-year-old spends time before class two days each week at the Mercy College library in downtown Des Moines.Next..

Couple inspires with cancer book

Given six months to live, Brian Monaghan was prepared to get his affairs in order. But his wife refused to let the diagnosis of Stage IV melanoma take her husband. Eleven years later, the healthy couple have published a book about their inspirational fight.

“We decided we weren’t going to accept cancer as a death sentence,” said Gerri Monaghan of her husband’s 1998 diagnosis and their battle, which they document in The Power of Two: Surviving Serious Illness with an Attitude and an Advocate.

Hundreds walk for heart health in Spfld 2009 annual Pioneer Valley Heart Walk

SPRINGFIELD, Mass. (WWLP) - Upwards of 1,000 people came to Springfield's Forest Park to help combat heart disease. Men, women and children fought heart disease by taking part in Sunday's fund raising Pioneer Valley Heart Walk.
22News met up with people who suffer from heart disease and stroke, or who've experienced the disease taking loved ones from them. "My wife had a stroke a year ago in January and she has aphasia to inability to speak. Slowly, slowly, slowly, she's working her way back," said Jack Taylor of Springfield. Next...