Stories & Achievements: Eddie’s Story

Eddie’s story: a new career

left Puerto Rico when I was 18 to go to the University of Tennessee and play baseball. I was a freshman when I met my Aussie wife Emily who was a tennis player and also studying there. We’d been there for just three months when we met, and we’ve been together ever since!  We came back to Australia after several years and our children Noah (14) and Sofia (17) were born here.

One weekend in 2017, at just 41 years of age, I just didn’t feel very good at all.  Emily took me to Belmont Hospital and they sent me to the John Hunter where I had a stroke in the triage.  I didn’t realise what was happening to me, I just knew that something was wrong.

I had brain surgery because it was a hemorrhagic stroke, a bleed on the brain. So I was bald with a big scar all the way down the side of my head. Emily went through it all with me. She was the glue for our family, she was everything - dealing with the doctors, the nurses, visiting me every day for many months.  She took leave from work for three months to just look after me.  Of course it was the hardest thing for Emily, but it was also hard for our kids as well. It was a shock especially in the early teenage years, experiencing their “Papa” going through this ordeal.

I had no bone on the top of my skull for two months to relieve pressure on the brain. Then in January 2018 the bone was put back and I transitioned from Rankin Park at John Hunter to the Hunter Brain Injury Service and I was there around two months.  I then went home but I was still doing rehab at HBIS on and off for a while.  I worked with psychologists, OT’s, social workers and more, but the main thing affected was my speech so that’s where I did most of my rehab.  As a result of my stroke I had aphasia, which is difficulty communicating as well as some other executive functioning difficulties.  I figured out that it wasn’t that I was less intelligent. It’s just that my words don’t come out as well as they used to and it’s harder for my brain to process things.

So I decided to go to an Aphasia group in Maitland which I participated in for a year and a half.  Every Friday, I went from 10am to 12pm for different exercises with maybe 20 other people. Everyone was great and it really helped my confidence.

I was always a runner, and after my second stroke I dropped ten kilos and was down to 70 kg. It’s funny because my right leg wasn’t working properly, probably because my left brain was affected.  But in saying that I’m still running. I always try to stay fit and went back to running after my stroke. I ran a half marathon in Sydney and even did a PB post stroke! My next event will be the Lake Mac 10.5k in August 2022.

At the time of my stroke I was working as a Human Resource Manager, but after my stroke I couldn’t do this work anymore. I already had a Master of Business Administration, but I knew I wasn’t going to be able to do what I used to do because of the communication factor.  So I was looking at different options.  In early 2019 my new direction started with a conversation I had with Kate, my Speech Pathologist at Everyday Independence, and Mike, my Headstart Support Worker.  They asked me, “Why aren’t you in the health industry?” So I asked “Can I do that?” They said “Yeah. What about a Cert IV as an Allied Health Assistant in Physiotherapy?” I thought about it and said, “OK! That’s a good idea!”

I had been through my own rehab journey and felt like it would be nice to give back to people going through similar situations. And so the plan took shape.  I wanted to do all of the study face-to-face and not digitally. So, I did my Cert IV study in Gosford, because here in Newcastle it was only offered online. I went to Gosford by train every week from 9am until 2 or 3pm, from March until December 2020, except during lockdown, of course.

In January 2021 I had another stroke when I was five weeks away from finishing study.  I had headaches and felt like something was wrong again.  So I went back to the hospital and that’s when they said “Oh, you’ve had another stroke.” I then had further brain surgery. The doctors don’t know why, but their best theory was explained as a cavernoma, which is a cluster of abnormal blood vessels on the brain, that unfortunately burst.

Therefore I had to put study on hold. Later in the year the tutor helped me finish the remaining five weeks.  I also did a work placement with Everyday Independence as a Physiotherapy Assistant.  I finished in October of 2021 and received my certificate in December.  It feels great!  Now I just need to find some work.

Recently, I’ve been seeing Greenlight Recruitment. They told me that 20% of jobs are advertised while the other 80% are not posted publicly. That’s just how it works. So I’ll introduce myself to different companies and  go from there.

I’m also meeting with my Headstart Support Worker, Seb, once a week for a couple of hours and we just go to a library or we go for walks together.  He helps me with exercises that my Speech Pathologist gives me and we go over it each week. For instance, one of the questions was “give me another word for ‘smile’. “Okay: happy, excited, joyful” and so on.  Or it could be an activity like a puzzle, or we go for a walk and talk, which is good too.

I feel excited about the health space but at the same time it’s all new.  With good help and advice I took steps to make it happen. I may communicate a little differently to most, and if some people are happy with that, great.  If not, I’m ok with that too.

Exciting news received from a month after publishing Eddie’s story (congratulations!):

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