A patient who traveled from Timaru, New Zealand, shares his progress following a hemorrhagic stroke.
The patient describes his pre-treatment baseline—which included double/blurred vision, altered taste (“everything tasted like chalk”), right-sided weakness, foot drop, and shoulder spasticity—and demonstrates real-time functional changes during his evaluation following Perispinal Etanercept (PSE) treatment.
Patient-Reported Changes Featured in This Video
- Visual Acuity & Focus: Prior to treatment, reading required closing one eye due to double vision or distortion. Post-treatment, the patient reports clear, aligned vision in both eyes, demonstrating the ability to read small map text up close with both eyes open.
- Restoration of Taste & Smell: Before the procedure, the patient noted that all food tasted like chalk. Post-treatment, his sense of smell and taste returned, allowing him to accurately identify and taste orange juice for the first time since his stroke.
- Shoulder Mobility & Reduced Spasticity: The patient demonstrates extended range of motion in his right arm and shoulder without tightness or discomfort, noting that his arm feels significantly freer and less bunched up.
- Sensory Return & Oral Sensation: The patient reports returning sensation in his gums, mouth, right leg, and toes inside his shoes.
- Gait Stability & Independent Walking: Demonstrating improved heel-strike alignment, the patient attempted walking without his support pole, reporting better central balance, a more natural stride, and relaxed posture while sitting.
- Hand & Finger Relaxation: The patient’s hand and fingers showed reduced muscle tightness, remaining loose rather than curling into a ball as they typically did by the afternoon.
Read Video Transcript
*Transcript generated by YouTube
I live in Timaru, New Zealand. When did you have your stroke? I had my stroke on the 15th or 16th of February last year. It was a hemorrhagic stroke on the left side of my brain affecting my right. Yeah. So, what were the things that it affected? Um taste, brain fog, fatigue. Particularly affected were my right my right leg. Mhm. Foot, being able to plant the heel and my arm. Numbness and weakness and the ability to actually walk was limited and when I could walk it was very much limited distance and even though I could actually get up and do my physio, I didn’t want to do [clears throat] it.
I’m feeling mentally a lot more awake and I can move my arm up and down a lot easier. I’m certainly seeing better in both eyes. I feel like they’re actually focusing. I can read the word Canada without having to close one eye. Up this close, I would have no no chance normally. But now I can read everything on that map. Yep, definitely easier. I couldn’t do I couldn’t get my arm over there like that yesterday. Yeah. It’s definitely a lot freer. It feels so good.
Being able to do this without spasticity getting in the way of things is a miracle. I’m amazed. I’m amazed. It doesn’t even tire me out doing it.
It can go back further than I was. Oh, yes. I haven’t been able to do that since before the stroke. I could basically get it around Gosh, look at that. But not as much pain in the shoulder now. Mhm. It’s dissipating as the session goes on. Yeah, I’m definitely seeing a hell of a lot better. I can actually see your faces properly.
Feel like someone’s pulled the blinds up. And my mouth is not as numb either. I can actually feel my gums. It actually feels the same on both sides.
Hopefully things don’t taste like chalk.
But the good thing is I can actually smell it. Ooh, that’s good.
That’s orange juice. [laughter]
Wonderful. Oh my goodness. Everything tasted like chalk, literally everything. It would either be sweet chalk or savory chalk. And now it tastes like things should. Like taste like orange juice.
I can’t wait for a cheeseburger. Wow, that’s all I can say. You’re a lifesaver, Dr. Tomanek, you know that?
I can actually get that foot, the heel closer to the ground Mhm. than before cuz normally it would ride about that much off. Um sensation’s come back in my right leg. I can actually feel this leg now. I can feel down here, and I can actually feel my toes wiggling in my shoes. The vision it’s almost back to where it was bef- um before the stroke. I can actually look out of this eye, and I can actually see you. Now I can look out of that eye, and the image is almost the same. That was half the problem with me walking, particularly outside. Being able to actually see where I was going and actually look and actually interpret what was in front of me before with the stroke I couldn’t do that. Now I’m quite confident I can.
I’m going to have a go without the pole. Oh, look at you.
I feel a lot more balanced. I feel it’s almost like a rod going down the middle.
It’s a lot less cumbersome to actually walk.
It’s feeling a lot more natural. I feel like I have more control. I feel like my motor control and my ability to actually walk through this leg and through a stride has improved. I actually feel like I’m sitting a lot squarer now instead of going over here. Definitely. It doesn’t feel painful on the right anymore. Even leaning on the right here, but now there’s nothing. No discomfort at all. And it’s amazing.
Excellent results. That’s marvelous. Yeah. Your fingers look looser as well. They feel looser. They don’t feel as tight cuz normally on any given afternoon after work they would just ball up and then they’d be out for the day. But now they’re actually loose. Definitely a massive improvement to 1 hour ago. I’m very impressed with the arm. It would just feel like it was all bunched up through my muscles. Mhm. And just massive tightness, but even now I can’t feel the tightness in my muscles that I had before this treatment. Medical experts around the world need to take note. That’s pretty cool. Yeah, thank Thank much. All of you. It’s amazing. Really it is.
