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Wife's Love, Support Helps Man Overcome Stroke

VENTURA (CBSLA.com) — A Ventura man was able to overcome a stroke with the help of his loving wife and comprehensive therapy.

"Seeing Terry, this person that I just love… suffering and struggling and conquering, it's just a miracle," Kathy Waters-Viele said.

KCAL9's Serene Branson reports that Kathy, a teacher, and her husband Terry, an attorney who had semi-retired in 2010, just celebrated 18 years of marriage.

The couple was looking forward to more time traveling and spending time with family when everything changed in an instant.

"He started having these very heavy duty hiccups. And I heard him and came, and I could see that his mouth was down, and I knew it was a stroke," Kathy said.

Very active in his late 60s, the family was stunned to learn Terry was part of the 8 percent of patients who suffered an additional bleed, leaving him unable to care for himself, speak clearly, walk or perform simple tasks.

"It was devastating because our life was so lovely and then a day later, it's totally destroyed," Kathy said.

With Kathy's constant love and support and comprehensive therapy Terry began last year at the Centre For Neuro Skills in Encino, things have changed dramatically.

"He couldn't reach his arms around her to hug and she left me a message a little while back…he walked up behind her while she was doing dishes and hugged her," the rehabilitation center's Roslyn Hart said.

Terry can now make his own cereal, shower, and most importantly, dance with his wife again.

"A lot of times she'd be making dinner, and I'd put on the music and then come into the kitchen while she was cooking, and we'd dance a few steps, so it was nice to be able to do that again," Terry said.

"We danced together and we have danced in the kitchen again, so the romance is back, that's exciting. We're happy. We have something way different than we expected, but we have each other," Kathy said.

"Kathy has been wonderful throughout this. If anything, we're closer now than we were before the stroke," Terry said.

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