Home remedy turns stroke victim to victor

In 2009, Ms Lee was admitted to Royal Perth Hospital after she suffered a severe stroke at work, leaving her unable to care for herself.

‘I just got up to go to work and had a massive headache, everything I looked at had clouds around it,’ she said.

‘My speech was slurred, my face was drooping ” everyone around me knew, but I didn’t know what was happening to me.’

After four months in hospital and a year in the Shenton Park rehab centre, Ms Lee returned to her home in Leeming but was unable to cope, resulting in the breakdown of her 40-year marriage.

‘I was thrust into a home environment without any assistance,’ she said.

Ms Lee was accepted to Brightwater Oats Street, a live-in rehabilitation facility in East Victoria Park that teaches people with brain injuries to care for themselves by moving through houses with varying intensities of care.

About 90 per cent of all clients at Oats Street make a significant recovery, including Ms Lee, who after entering the facility a year ago in a wheelchair will soon walk out of with her sights set firmly on a brighter future.

‘I want to travel, I want to see the world, I want to run around with my grandchildren,’ she said.

Ms Lee commended the excellence of the Oats Street staff and said she wished everyone with a brain injury could receive the same level of care had received.