A sad story with a happy ending!

The daughter (I'll call her Mary) of one of my clients with aphasia told me this story. When her mother had a stroke, she was seen by a speech language pathologist in the hospital. This speech language pathologist was very good. She suggested that Mary's mother write down words in a notebook, so that when she needed them in conversation, she could look them up.

Mary was talking to her son's speech language pathologist at the school that her son goes to. Mary told the school speech language pathologist that her mother had had a stroke and couldn't talk. Mary said, "It must have a name!" The school speech language pathologist immediately said, "Aphasia".

The sad part of this story is that Mary and her mother did not learn this from the speech language pathologist at the hospital. Fortunately for Mary, she had another knowledgeable resource to talk to. Many people are not so lucky. They go home from the hospital without knowing that they have aphasia. Because they do not know the name of their condition, they do not know where to go for help.

Can you imagine someone with diabetes going to the hospital, being treated, and then being discharged without ever being told that the name of their condition is diabetes? Without knowing the diagnosis, they cannot seek proper treatment or learn to care for themselves.

That is why aphasia organizations advocate that people with aphasia be told that they have aphasia. They should also receive this information in writing. That way, if they do not remember or it is too much to take in, then later on they can follow up on it.