Pavel and Jana

The following narrative was written by Pavel, whose family heard the following ruthless verdict from the doctors three years ago: “Prepare for the worst. He will die in a matter of weeks, maybe months, he will not wake up from unconsciousness, you have to accept that”.

Today, Pavel (44 years old) is able to type out his story on the computer:

In 2020 I had a stroke.

The day began like any other ordinary day. In the morning I got up before six o’clock for work, at eight I took the children to school, there was a meeting with my team at half past eight, and at nine with management. And between these two meetings it happened.

Then I was in a coma until Christmas and spent another six months in intensive care, where they brought me back to life. I still had two tubes coming out of my stomach. Then I spent a month in the incredibly terrible Chuchelná rehabilitation center, then finally three months in Klimkovice. That’s where I became a man.

Then I tried to develop into a state where I wouldn’t have to be ashamed of my disability. But in March of the following year, I broke my hip. And that’s where my problems started. I couldn’t step on my right foot. And that limits me until today.

In June we went on holiday for two weeks, at first to the Alps and then to the sea. The sea in particular gave me a lot. I swam with a mask without problems. But my wife had to help me get into the water.

I started going for botulinum toxin treatments around this time. First twice to Ostrava, then three times to Olomouc, once every three months. I also go to Jitrocel in Olomouc to exercise once a week for the whole morning. I still go to an exercise therapist once a week for one hour, and we’ve contracted a trainer for full body stretching for one hour. I also trained three times with Šumper’s Pontis for a three-week off-site.

It’s been three years now, I’m in a wheelchair, I can’t feel or use the right side of my body and I can barely speak. That’s a complete description of what I can do.

His wife Jana, an architect by profession, adds to Pavel’s story:

My husband suffered severe bleeding in the brain without any external cause, a small blood vessel burst. It was a sudden event in a completely healthy person, an athlete who did not even get sick once in the last 14 years. From a great athlete, an active husband, a father of two children, he became an invalid dependent on someone else’s care. It happened from one minute to the next. I was left alone with two minor children and worries about my bare existence (mortgage payments can’t wait). I became a full-time breadwinner and provider for all my husband’s needs. It is exhausting.

He was on a breathing machine for more than a month, unconscious for a total of four. In the Military Hospital in Olomouc, he slept a lot, cleared his mind, exercised a little, but could only communicate with a table of letters. Then followed a move to Chuchelná, where he was supposed to get in shape. It was a very traumatic experience for him and our family. The care there during the covid period was definitely not ideal. Today, we see it as a dead end to getting healthy. I did everything I could to move him to Klimkovice, where he completed a three-month special neurorehabilitation program, which brought him back to life and, above all, restored hope that nothing is completely lost.

Pavel began to really push himself. At first he could not speak, and today he can speaks intelligibly, though slowly. He had double vision and poor eyesight – today he is able to read normally. We are also training him to walk. His disability made him into a one-hundred-year-old, and in the beginning he could only move his left arm and leg a little. He was a great athlete, a hard worker , a healthy person, so he has a chance.

He didn’t give up. He is getting used to a different life, though perhaps limited only in a wheelchair, and plans to be able to take care of his children and return to his profession as a mechanical engineer in the future. But first, he needs to regain his lost self-sufficiency, especially through special neurorehabilitation.

Special neurorehabilitation, clinical speech therapy, eye exercises and many other treatment methods are not fully covered by public insurance, and are very expensive. It is extremely time and financially demanding to secure the care my husband needs. Fundraising through Konto barriery helped us.

I try to give my husband as much psychological support as possible. It’s a constant struggle.

All that remains is to struggle and hope that Pavel’s brain will find a way so he can be self-sufficient again. Self-sufficiency! That’s my wish and his!

For this year, we are purchasing a special Exopulse Mollii Suit for Pavel, and we plan to continue neurorehabilitation at the Jitrocel Olomouc center, Pontis in Šumperk, and speech therapy in Klimkovice. That’s not all, he has to practice speech therapy and other cognitive functions for an hour every day. And he also has to live a little – take care of his children and his wife. He really wants to buy me a flower for my birthday this year. And he also wants to clean up the workshop, be useful…