Evelyn's Story
Evelyn still reaches for words and speaks slowly and now walks with a cane. But she considers herself fortunate—when she thinks of what could have happened had she not taken quick action in the middle of the night.
It was about 4 a.m. when she awoke and noticed her hand was heavy. She called her daughter, and everything moved quickly from there.
“She heard my voice and said, ‘Mami, you’re having a stroke,’” Evelyn recalls the event two months ago. Her daughter called 911, and Evelyn spent two weeks in the Henry and Lucy Moses Division of Montefiore Health System before being admitted to Burke.
Evelyn credits the intensive therapy schedule—three times a day every day—and the “amazing team” with getting her back on her feet and back to herself. Physical and occupational therapy helped her strengthen and regain function in her weakened right side. Speech, language and swallowing therapy helped her reclaim her voice.
“I worked very hard, I forced myself,” she says. “The therapy helped me so much—I can walk again, though with a cane, and my speech is better.”
Her commitment, gratitude and constant positivity went a long way towards her achieving her goals, notes Daniel Leet, Physical Therapy Assistant. “It can be difficult to stay so positive and grateful when you are facing serious health problems,” he says. “But she’s a great example of how it can make a big difference in your recovery.”
Her attitude, says Occupational Therapist Stephanie Gordan, even helped others in their rehabilitation journey. “Evelyn's positivity spread throughout the gym, and she was always cheering on other patients during their recovery,” says Stephanie.
She continues her recovery![]()
in outpatient physical therapy. Evelyn’s ultimate goal from the start—and now, two months later—is to get back to the things she loves to do. That means playing with her grandchildren and her dog, going out with friends or entertaining, cooking, walking without a cane, speaking without searching or stopping, and even something so simple as combing her hair.
“I want to be me again,” she says. And she is well on her way.
