Dad walks again after having part of skull removed due to stroke

By Emma Dunn via SWNS

A dad who had half his skull removed after a sudden stroke has beaten the odds to walk, talk and ride a bike again.

Geoff Smith, 54, had let his dogs out into the garden when he suffered a middle cerebral artery stroke and fell and hit his head.

His wife Jo Smith, 53, found her husband unresponsive in their living room and realized he was having a stroke.

Geoff was rushed to hospital and the family were told his chances of surviving were just five percent - and if he did he'd be left severely disabled.

He underwent a decompressive craniectomy to remove a large part of his skull to allow for his swelling brain to expand.

Geoff spent five and a half months in neurological rehabilitation and was miraculously back walking nine weeks after his stroke.

Jo has continued to find intense therapy for Geoff and says he is "70 percent back to the old Geoff" and is back to work one morning a week, walking and talking.

Jo, a full-time carer for Geoff, from Chelmsford, Essex, said: "I was told he'd need four carers a day.

"Someone like Geoff should be in a nursing home but he doesn't need this.

"Geoff is 70 to 80 percent back to the old Geoff."

Jo - who is mom to Paige, 28, Josh, 26, and Georgie, 22 - woke up to an "eerie silence" on March 28, 2019.

She said: "I came down and found him in the lounge.

"He was sitting up but unresponsive.

"He had a large laceration to his right side. His right mouth had completely gone.

"I knew he was having a stroke."

Jo doesn't know exactly what happened but believe he had gone into the garden to let the dogs out and fallen and hit his head - as they found blood on the concrete post.

He had somehow got back indoors where Jo found him.

She said: "I screamed up to call an ambulance.

"I was screaming at Geoff not to leave me."

Geoff was rushed to Broomfield Hospital and Jo was told the worst.

She said: "I was told he either wasn't going to make it or he'd need to have his skull removed.

"After a CT scan they realized his brain had swelled way beyond what they expected."

Geoff was transferred to Queens Hospital, Romford and underwent a craniectomy.

Jo said: "Doctors said if they don't do this he will die in two hours.

"The chances of him surviving were very slim - five per cent.

"If he did survive he'd be left severely disabled."

Following the operation Geoff spent 12 days on and off a ventilator - even managing to utter the words "I love you".

He came off the ventilator on April 11, 2019 and spent a further six days in Queen's Hospital before being transferred back to Broomfield for four weeks.

Geoff then got a bed at Homerton University Hospital to undergo intense rehabilitation.

Jo said: "He couldn't walk. He started to get a little bit of movement in his right leg.

"His speech was pretty much non-existent.

"He was a shell of himself."

Geoff made significant changes in five months at the hospital and came home in August 2019.

He was diagnosed with aphasia - a language disorder which affects how you communicate.

Jo said: "He couldn't read or write or understand language.

"He was cognitively impaired and very impulsive."

Jo had to continue therapy herself and has paid for it privately since January 2020 but it's proved life-changing for Geoff - who receives personal training from Neil Heppel at The Wellbeing Hub.

She said: "His communication has improved immensely.

"He can talk in sentences. He didn't lose his intelligence. All the words are in his head but he has difficulty getting them out.

"He has progressed beyond words. It's been phenomenal.

"He climbed Snowdon in 2022. He can successfully ride a two wheeled bike.

"We're talking about Geoff driving a car again - something he misses hugely."

But Jo admits that it has been hard but she had felt determined to keep going for Geoff.

She said: "A lot of that has been me. My job has been to rehab Geoff.

"I'm not really a wife - I'm a therapist."

But seeing the progress Geoff has made gives Jo the strength to keep going.

She also wants to help with the lack of understanding of brain injuries.

She said: "I'll share videos of Geoff shouting.

"People still think he's a mean and angry man.

"This is all part of what the stoke causes. The hidden effects of strokes.

"Your frontal lobe is the chief executive of your brain. It makes you who you are.

"It's pretty understandable that things are not going to be how they were."

But Jo has never given up hope.

She said: "Everyday Geoff comes back to us more and more.

"Five years into stroke recovery is still very new on this journey.

"Recovery is for life.

"The stroke is life changing, it's not life ending.

"Never give up hope."

Geoff, when asked about his recovery, said: "It's good and I'm getting better as well.

"It's an improvement. It is what it is and it's getting easier and I will keep on keeping on."