Woman who had stroke calls for speech therapy

Patient condemns lack of assessment after harrowing time

- JAMES CARTLEDGE News Reporter

A BIRMINGHAM woman was unable to say her own name for three years after suffering two strokes.

Kelly Williams, 55, was left with aphasia and is now backing calls for more timely speech assessments for stroke patients.

It was days before she received her speech and language assessment in hospital and she did not have any speech therapy in hospital at all.

A new snapshot poll of stroke care found just under a quarter, 24.8 per cent, of stroke patients received a speech and language therapy (SLT) assessment within 24 hours of arrival at hospital, and less than half received the check within 72 hours.

Ms Williams had two strokes in 2017.

“I knew nothing about what was happening to me, my family were confused because they didn’t know how to communicate with me,” she said. “What I needed was someone to tell me that I had aphasia, what that meant, and what I could do about it - but no one did.