I think it would be great too. How about this one:
01/20/2007 An amazing recovery, thanks to love and care
North Bergen woman makes remarkable strides after suffering near-fatal
aneurysm, stroke By Jim Hague
That fateful August morning in 2003 was going to be like any other
day for Barbara Natali. The North Bergen resident was getting ready to resume
her career as a successful real estate agent.
Tall, gorgeous and ambitious, Natali had earned the distinction of being the
top-selling realtor at one of North Hudson's most prestigious real estate
firms, after spending 10 years as a fashion designer.
"She was like my protégé," said Robert DeRuggiero, the president of DeRuggiero
Realtors, Inc. of Union City, where Natali worked for over a decade. "We worked
very close together. Barbara was enthusiastic, energetic and passionate about
her work. She was on the verge of doing some great things, destined for great
things."
Natali was active, having competed in triathlons and swimming every day. She
was frequently seen outside the Parker Imperial complex on Boulevard East,
where she resided for the last 18 years, walking her golden retriever to nearby
North Hudson Braddock Park.
At age 41, Natali was happy and healthy, showing no signs of illness
whatsoever.
Advertisement
var ss_loc_off_root=''; '); } //--> But that all
changed in the blink of an eye one morning.
"I woke up that morning with a terrible headache," Natali recalled. "I remember
ringing the bell for the doorman, Jason, who was downstairs. I told him that I
couldn't breathe and to call an ambulance. That's all I can remember. I thought
I was going to die. My life changed forever at that point."
A massive stroke
As it turned out, Natali was suffering a massive brain aneurysm and stroke.
The result was Natali lying in a coma for approximately eight months.
Most patients do not recover from the extent of the aneurysm and stroke that
Natali suffered. It is believed that if Natali did not call the doorman when
she did, she would have died without getting proper treatment. The aneurysm
itself causes death in 90 percent of similar cases.
When Natali finally came out of the coma, she was lying in a hospital bed at
Kessler Rehabilitation Hospital in East Orange.
What was her first reaction?
"I was hungry," Natali laughed.
However, the prospects did not look good. Doctors anticipated that Barbara
would never recover, that she would more than likely remain in a vegetative
state for the rest of her life.
"I had no idea what was going on," Natali said. "It was so frustrating. I
couldn't do anything. I couldn't speak. I wanted to scream. I wanted to say,
'Why is this happening to me?' I was hoping it was just a terrible nightmare
and I would wake up and be fine."
But that wasn't the case. Natali was virtually paralyzed and lying in the fetal
position for most of the day. She couldn't communicate and needed care 24 hours
a day.
Natali's parents, Arnold and Pat, who have been divorced for a period of time,
instantly became Barbara's daily caregivers. They arranged to have a live-in
caregiver, Elizabeth Cicakova, a native of Czechoslovakia, to remain with
Barbara after release from the hospital, albeit with practically no hope of
recovery.
Insurance had stopped paying for anything related to Barbara's care, because
insurance claim adjustors saw no improvement in Barbara's condition.
Barbara's angel
It was pure circumstance one day two years ago that Arnold Natali ran into
Carrie Freed, a fellow resident at Parker Imperial. The two just happened to
get in the same elevator together.
"We just randomly met," said Freed, who is a registered occupational therapist
and practitioner, specializing in brain injured victims and neuro-developmental
treatment. "I didn't know Barbara, even though we live in the same building.
Our paths never crossed. I just started up a conversation with her father that
day. Once I told him what I do, I then told him that maybe there was something
I could do to help his daughter. I gave him my card and told him to call me."
That was two years ago. Freed has been a major part of Natali's life ever
since.
"I believe it was fate," Natali said. "I believe something brought Carrie to
me, because she's been my angel."
When Freed first met Barbara, the therapist couldn't believe what she was
seeing.
"Barbara wasn't with it," Freed said. "She could open her eyes and smile, but
she couldn't do much else. I couldn't believe we lived in the same building and
we never met before. She couldn't roll over on her own. She just moved her toes
a little."
But Freed was determined that something could be done to help Barbara, thanks
to a method of healing that she specializes in, called the "Feldenkrais
method."
"I realized that Barbara was cognitively impaired," Freed said. "I knew she
couldn't speak. Her life, as she knew it, was decimated. She had significant
brain damage. She had to learn how to do all the little things all over again.
We had to try to figure out how to teach the brain how to do all the little
things she was so used to doing."
The long road of rehab
The "Feldenkrais method" focuses on the relationship between movement and
thought, increased mental awareness and the creativity that can accompany
awareness. It is basically teaching the body to move with less effort and
making daily life much easier.
It is a method developed by a Ukrainian judo master and inventor named Moshe
Feldenkrais, who used his background in martial arts, especially judo, to
discover ways for people to heal knee injuries, especially his own, channeling
the healing through themselves.
People who have practiced the "Feldenkrais method" have improved their range of
motion, flexibility and coordination, and graceful, efficient body movement
more effortlessly.
While everyone can use the method - tennis star Martina Navratilova and famed
cellist Yo-Yo Ma are two who swear by it - its biggest response is with
patients suffering from central nervous system disorders, such as multiple
sclerosis, cerebral palsy and stroke victims.
"We were going to teach Barbara's body to do things with the least amount of
effort," Freed said. "How to use the legs to balance yourself, how to improve
balance and coordination. These are gentle movements with gentle instruction.
The attention is directed to the area that is needed. You shouldn't have to
exert so much energy simply to roll over. There's a method to it. Soon, the
whole body is moving."
Freed began working with Natali two years ago on a stretching table, working on
different parts of her body and working on different positions that ease
movement. The progress has been steady, bordering on the amazing.
"I used to work in hospitals and rehabilitation units and I've worked with
patients that were as impaired as Barbara was," Freed said. "But I never
expected to see this kind of improvement. I never had anyone recover to this
extent."
A miraculous recovery
Because Barbara began to move, her parents were able to get medical clearance
from the insurance company to begin weekly therapy again. There was more than a
glimmer of hope. There was life.
"Barbara was able to be re-admitted to therapy by the insurance company," Freed
said. "So then I was able to give her regular therapy, cognitive therapy and
occupational therapy. She was also able to go back to physical therapy (once a
week at Kessler)."
Natali has come a long way since her near-fatal aneurysm and stroke. She can
now walk and talk freely.
"She makes me feel lighter now," Natali said. "I can walk now because of
Carrie. I'm freer now because of Carrie. Carrie is my God-send. She's a
beautiful human being for helping me."
It certainly is beyond imagination how the two hooked up.
"It really was all circumstance," Freed said. "Imagine if I wasn't in the
elevator that day to meet Barbara's father. But her family is the reason for
her recovery. They're really special people who always believed when other
people didn't."
As for the recovery?
"It's absolutely amazing," Freed said. "There's no other way to describe it.
She's just so motivated to get better and has taken that motivation to another
level. She wants to have a purposeful life. She still can't make perfect sense
of why she's here or what happened, but she's thinking about becoming an art
teacher or becoming a coach for others, telling her motivational story."
"I'd love to do that," Natali says with an effervescent smile. "Life is
beautiful. Life goes on. I used to be in a fetal position all day. Now, I can
walk. I can talk. Now, walking is the hardest thing in my life, but I'm doing
it. It's been a very tough road, but I'm getting there. I always felt I could
get better. I always felt like I could walk again."
A life of purpose
Although there are still signs of the brain damage caused by the aneurysm and
stroke, Natali writes things down to remember. She also does the New York Times
crossword puzzle daily to help her vocabulary.
"I finish it every day," Natali says with pride.
She also has a significant other in her life, a young man named Lenny who is a
stroke victim that she met while rehabilitating in Kessler.
"He had a bad stroke, but he's getting better," Natali said.
"Barbara had these goals in life, to become useful, to have a companion in her
life," Freed said. "Barbara continues to get better and better every day. Now,
it's just subtle stuff she does better. Maybe she's moving her feet a little
lighter. She's better balanced and doesn't fall as often as she did when she
first started walking. But she's the best patient I've ever had with the most
dramatic improvement. From where she started and where she's at now, she's a
poster child for recovery."
Natali's personality touched the people at Kessler so much that she was
recently named Patient of the Year at the rehab facility.
"Before, everything I did was so hard," Natali said. "Now, it's a lot easier."
Just last week, Natali was the lector at the Sunday mass at St. Joseph's Church
in North Bergen. She's proud to say that she's joined Weight Watchers and lost
32 pounds.
"She had the worst type of aneurysm and stroke and there was very little hope
for recovery," Freed said. "Now, look at her. But it's going to be a lifelong
recovery. She has to be willing to put in the work."
Natali's former boss is amazed.
"It truly is a miracle," said DeRuggiero, who takes the time to see Natali for
lunch as often as possible. "She was on a machine, in a coma, not given much
hope. Just watching the progression, from the hospital bed to the wheelchair to
where she's walking. And she's as sharp as a tack now. I still have a strong,
personal connection with Barbara. Her family are just amazing people and very
supportive. It's so nice to see that she's doing better. Her clients still call
us and ask how she's doing. I tell them that she's pretty fabulous."
Just seeing Barbara Natali's smile tells you just how fabulous she really is.
"My career now is getting better," Natali said. "I have to get better. I'm
thinking of taking up tennis this year."
A miracle indeed
'); } // --> var bnum=new Number(Math.floor(99999999 *
Math.random())+1); document.write(' '); '); } //--> ©The
Hudson Reporter 2007
JM <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
Hi Jimmie,
your comment about posting a topic/healine and then discussing it is
very interesting and would be something I believe
I would participate in.
Jeanne
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