'Singing songs by The Beatles helped me recover from a stroke': Man used Fab Four's hit tracks to regain his speech
The ability to talk is not something most of us give a second thought — it had certainly never occurred to me how bereft I’d feel without my voice. Then one day I woke up in a hospital bed robbed of the power to utter a single word. I’d had a stroke. It came without warning and wreaked havoc on my well-being and ability to communicate.
It happened as I was preparing for a picnic in June last year. I was with my youngest daughter, Isabella, 12, putting up the garden umbrella when I suddenly felt strange, dizzy and light-headed. At the same time I felt something ‘click’ inside my head. I didn’t lose consciousness, my face didn’t droop — some of the characteristic signs of a stroke — but it felt like the worst migraine ever, with flashing lights and double vision. I tried to speak but all the words were jumbled. My partner, Barbara, realised I was having a stroke and drove me to hospital.
For the first time in my life I felt depressed and retreated into my own world. The one thing that gave me any pleasure was music. Then suddenly I found hope. Four days after my stroke I was lying in bed listening to a Beatles track and found that I could sing along. To the amusement of the ward, I was singing aloud I Should Have Known Better. There was no effort needed to get the words out. But when my headphones came off and the music stopped, so did my speech — and I was back to drawing pictures and gesturing to communicate with everyone.
By: Peter Trollope
Source: Daily Mail
