This First Person column is written by Lindsay Bond, a nurse who lives in Halifax. For more information about CBC’s First Person stories, please see the FAQ.
I was 23 years old when I had my stroke.
It still seems silly saying it. I was young and healthy and had just started my nursing career — which is why it was such a shock when I had the stroke. Turns out, it was caused by a patent foramen ovale (PFO), which is a hole in the heart that typically closes as a baby.
It is nearly a year after my stroke and I feel like I have not processed it fully. I often have to convince myself that it did in fact happen. But it did, and now it’s shifted my perspective on my nursing career and family.
While I was applying to universities in high school, being far away from my family wasn’t really something I thought too much about. Of course, there were times when I missed my family, but I spent many reading weeks, weekends and summers at home. I had no idea how much I relied on my family and friends for emotional support or how homesick I would get.
That feeling intensified when I had my stroke just as the third wave of COVID-19 was peaking in Canada. The hospital I was at had closed its doors to all visitors, and the province had shut down its borders. Everything had to be done virtually, which proved to be quite exhausting while I had terrible double vision and mostly relied on my ears. I felt trapped in the hospital. My parents were unable to travel to Nova Scotia from Ontario, and even if they could, they wouldn’t be allowed in the hospital to see me.
Lindsay Bond, left, is pictured with her family in 2018. (Lindsay Bond)
My mother had stage 4 esophageal cancer, and it felt like the time I had left with her was stolen because I was stuck in the hospital for six weeks and separated by thousands of kilometres. While I was hospitalized, going home to my family felt like my only motivation to get better. After going through this pandemic and feeling so lonely in the hospital, I’m never taking for granted the time I spent with my family and loved ones.
As a nurse, I have seen the devastation that strokes have on people and their families. Typically, these patients were older and usually had comorbidities, the medical term for having additional conditions. It was scary to think about how these patients would go on after leaving the recovery room or what the lasting impacts might be.
After my stroke, suddenly the tables turned and I went from being the nurse to being the patient. I never once thought to myself that I could be the one in the hospital stretcher — uncertain if I could walk again or swallow solid food again or be a nurse again. I had to remind myself constantly that I wasn’t the only one going through this. Strokes happen to people every day. After being the one in the bed with nurses taking care of me, I feel like I have a better grasp on the hundreds of emotions that many patients feel while they are in the hospital.
I’m not saying any nurse intends to ignore the emotions and fears of having a stroke. But we’re so busy and focused on the medical treatments of multiple patients, that it is easy to forget to pay attention to these things in such a fast-paced environment. When I return to work, I don’t want to forget how alone I felt lying on that hospital bed. Hopefully, it will make me slow down and pay attention to the non-physical needs of my future patients.
Lindsay Bond worked as part of a COVID-19 testing team in April 2020 before her stroke. (Lindsay Bond)
This past year has been one of the most difficult of my life, and that isn’t even really taking into account the pandemic. After enduring many adversities with health and family, I remember the things that I am grateful for. I think about the silver linings of every situation instead of asking the “what ifs.”
I’ll remember that I was not the only patient in the hospital during the visitor restrictions. I’ll remember to be present in the moment when I am with my family and loved ones because at any moment they could be taken away. When I go back to work as a nurse, I’ll remember how it felt to be on the other side of things. How it felt to be lying in the stretcher and feeling scared, relying on someone else for things that normally I could have done myself. When I think about all I have learned from this experience, having a stroke at 23 doesn’t seem so bad anymore.
I would like to say that now I spend more time with my family, but with everyone’s busy lives and the continued pandemic, it is hard to make the time. Instead, I try to be more present in the moment, grateful that I have loving and supportive people around me, cheering me on in my stroke recovery.
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CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) — A linebacker at Division II West Virginia State was fatally shot during what the university said Thursday is being investigated by police as a home invasion.
The body of Jyilek Zyiare Harrington, 21, of Charlotte, North Carolina, was found inside an apartment Wednesday night in Charleston, police Lt. Tony Hazelett said in a statement.
Hazelett said several gunshots were fired during a disturbance in a hallway and inside the apartment. The statement said Harrington had multiple gunshot wounds and was pronounced dead at the scene. Police said they had no information on a possible suspect.
West Virginia State said counselors were available to students and faculty on campus.
“Our thoughts and prayers are with Jyilek’s family as they mourn the loss of this incredible young man,” West Virginia State President Ericke S. Cage said in a letter to students and faculty.
Harrington, a senior, had eight total tackles, including a sack, in a 27-24 win at Barton College last week.
“Jyilek truly embodied what it means to be a student-athlete and was a leader not only on campus but in the community,” West Virginia State Vice President of Intercollegiate Athletics Nate Burton said. “Jyilek was a young man that, during Christmas, would create a GoFundMe to help less fortunate families.”
Burton said donations to a fund established by the athletic department in Harrington’s memory will be distributed to an organization in Charlotte to continue his charity work.
West Virginia State’s home opener against Carson-Newman, originally scheduled for Thursday night, has been rescheduled to Friday, and a private vigil involving both teams was set for Thursday night. Harrington previously attended Carson-Newman, where he made seven tackles in six games last season. He began his college career at Division II Erskine College.
“Carson-Newman joins West Virginia State in mourning the untimely passing of former student-athlete Jyilek Harrington,” Carson-Newman Vice President of Athletics Matt Pope said in a statement. “The Harrington family and the Yellow Jackets’ campus community is in our prayers. News like this is sad to hear anytime, but today it feels worse with two teams who knew him coming together to play.”
DETROIT (AP) — Joe Schmidt, the Hall of Fame linebacker who helped the Detroit Lions win NFL championships in 1953 and 1957 and later coached the team, has died. He was 92.
The Lions said family informed the team Schmidt died Wednesday. A cause of death was not provided.
One of pro football’s first great middle linebackers, Schmidt played his entire NFL career with the Lions from 1953-65. An eight-time All-Pro, he was enshrined into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1973 and the college football version in 2000.
“Joe likes to say that at one point in his career, he was 6-3, but he had tackled so many fullbacks that it drove his neck into his shoulders and now he is 6-foot,” said the late Lions owner William Clay Ford, Schmidt’s presenter at his Hall of Fame induction in 1973. “At any rate, he was listed at 6-feet and as I say was marginal for that position. There are, however, qualities that certainly scouts or anybody who is drafting a ballplayer cannot measure.”
Born in Pittsburgh, Schmidt played college football in his hometown at Pitt, beginning his stint there as a fullback and guard before coach Len Casanova switched him to linebacker.
“Pitt provided me with the opportunity to do what I’ve wanted to do, and further myself through my athletic abilities,” Schmidt said. “Everything I have stemmed from that opportunity.”
Schmidt dealt with injuries throughout his college career and was drafted by the Lions in the seventh round in 1953. As defenses evolved in that era, Schmidt’s speed, savvy and tackling ability made him a valuable part of some of the franchise’s greatest teams.
Schmidt was elected to the Pro Bowl 10 straight years from 1955-64, and after his arrival, the Lions won the last two of their three NFL titles in the 1950s.
In a 1957 playoff game at San Francisco, the Lions trailed 27-7 in the third quarter before rallying to win 31-27. That was the NFL’s largest comeback in postseason history until Buffalo rallied from a 32-point deficit to beat Houston in 1993.
“We just decided to go after them, blitz them almost every down,” Schmidt recalled. “We had nothing to lose. When you’re up against it, you let both barrels fly.”
Schmidt became an assistant coach after wrapping up his career as a player. He was Detroit’s head coach from 1967-72, going 43-35-7.
Schmidt was part of the NFL’s All-Time Team revealed in 2019 to celebrate the league’s centennial season. Of course, he’d gone into the Hall of Fame 46 years earlier.
Not bad for an undersized seventh-round draft pick.
“It was a dream of mine to play football,” Schmidt told the Detroit Free Press in 2017. “I had so many people tell me that I was too small. That I couldn’t play. I had so many negative people say negative things about me … that it makes you feel good inside. I said, ‘OK, I’ll prove it to you.’”
VICTORIA – British Columbia‘s Environment Assessment Office has fined Coastal GasLink Pipeline Ltd. $590,000 for “deficiencies” in the construction of its pipeline crossing the province.
The office says in a statement that 10 administrative penalties have been levied against the company for non-compliance with requirements of its environmental assessment certificate.
It says the fines come after problems with erosion and sediment control measures were identified by enforcement officers along the pipeline route across northern B.C. in April and May 2023.
The office says that the latest financial penalties reflect its escalation of enforcement due to repeated non-compliance of its requirements.
Four previous penalties have been issued for failing to control erosion and sediment valued at almost $800,000, while a fifth fine of $6,000 was handed out for providing false or misleading information.
The office says it prioritized its inspections along the 670-kilometre route by air and ground as a result of the continued concerns, leading to 59 warnings and 13 stop-work orders along the pipeline that has now been completed.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 12, 2024.
