Gerry's Story is one of a number of personal stories which people have shared as part of the"We Needs Our Heads Examined" campaign for rehabilitation services.

You can download the campaign leaflet here

Stroke survivor Gerry Carmody counts himself "very lucky" to have had an early discharge team help him recover. There are only three early supported discharge teams in the country looking after patients in four hospitals. The Mater hospital Dublin, where Gerry was treated, is one of them.

Gerry is a married father of two grown up children from the Navan Rd, Dublin 7. In June 2014 he was in bed when he suffered a stroke. He woke up and found that he could not use his arm to pick up his mobile phone but did not think it was anything serious and went back to sleep. When he got up to go to work, he noticed that his arm was still not working properly. He had no power in it. He had also lost the ability to move his right leg.

Gerry called his GP who went out to his house and examined him before arranging for him to be taken to the Mater hospital where he was treated for about two weeks. After he went home, the hospital's early discharge team called out to him three times a week over an eight week period. After eight weeks, Gerry was nearly back to the point where he could do all the things he could not after his stroke. Gerry's experience shows the critical importance of access to neuro-rehabilitation services for people with stroke and other neurological conditions.