Johnny's and Lizzie's story

0:01

My name's Johnny Reece Samuels Te Kauwhata.

0:05

I'm from Kaikohe, we're in Kerikeri.

0:08

I live with my partner, been living with her for the last year and a half. Loving every minute of it.

0:16

I'm Lizzie, Johnny's partner.

0:19

Basically, grew up in Kerikeri.

0:21

I was early childhood teaching for 10 years and then the week I met him, took a year, and just did a lot of post stroke support work with the elderly in the homes, funnily enough.

0:36

And now I'm here and I'm full time caring for Johnny at home.

0:40

Before it happened, we went out and we went to go grab some food, ordered our food, went outside, sat at the table.

0:51

And I was told, I was just sitting there with my hand on my head, just having a slight headache.

0:59

And then my speech was slightly slurred.

1:03

I was tryna think through the whole situation as to how well I'm talking.

1:08

I told my partner after a little bit that I'm just going to go down to the ground.

1:14

Don't worry about it. Don't be alarmed. I'm just going to go down to the ground.

1:21

Cause I felt like I was going to faint.

1:24

So, I went down, I tried to get myself up.

1:28

They held me down; I knew that my balance was out.

1:34

After a bit, they had picked me up and helped me back to the car.

1:39

So, we started taking off, heading out of Kerikeri. And I started falling asleep.

1:48

And then my partner was like, "don't fall asleep"

1:50

I was like why's that? Is it one of those?

1:54

She was like, "yes, it's one of those". I said, oh, no.

1:56

Then I started freaking out.

1:58

On the ride over, we were able to identify that it was a stroke. From using the F.A.S.T magnets, the things I learnt through my work and things.

2:10

So, took him into the hospital, wheelchaired him in. And I said to the doctor there, I think he's had a stroke.

2:19

And I just got you know, he's too young.

2:22

It's not possible.

2:23

We're not gonna do the tests. It's gonna be a waste of time.

2:26

It's probably just a vertigo.

2:29

And Johnny was saying that he's had enough, he wanted to go home.

2:32

The doctor had said, this is enough, that he's fine. Just go home.

2:35

So, I thought I need to humble myself. I'm not a doctor. Let it go. Which I did, and got him home.

2:44

Next day, he was just the same, if not worse.

2:48

The next day I got a phone call from my dad asking me if anything had gotten better or worse.

2:56

And I said, it's very much stagnant. Everything's still very much the same.

3:00

He said, come to Kawakawa. We'll pick you up from there. Okay?

3:05

So I jumped in the back of my partner's parents car, drove off to Kawakawa roundabout, jumped in the back of my parents RV.

3:13

We drove off to Whangarei Hospital.

3:16

And as I seen the Whangarei Hospital building reflection in the window, I felt a massive relief.

3:27

And there was a lady that had come out with a wheelchair, and she seen me. She freaked out. She was like, I'm sorry, I can't push you.

3:34

And I was like, no, no, it's fine. It's all right. And that was the last thing I remember.

3:38

I think that having that knowledge gave me a wider perspective as to just F.A.S.T.

3:49

Cause yeah F.A.S.T - face, arm, speech and time to take action.

3:54

That is the most common.

3:56

But the biggest thing was time. Time, time, time.

3:59

You gotta get, you gotta get it sorted.