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My name is Steve Mallory. I am the
President & CEO of The Stroke Network. Our website is
located at
http://www.strokenetwork.org/. We are a
registered 501(c)3 non-profit organization. Our
mission
is to provide on-line stroke support and information. I
founded this organization after I had a stroke. When I was
discharged from the hospital I still had dozens of questions
about what happened to me. I was only 36 years old.
I used to be an aerospace engineer for
Martin Marietta, now known as
Lockheed Martin. That is me in the picture above.
I travelled extensively all over the world. I was in
Toulouse, France doing business with
Aerospatiale at the Airbus Industries facility. I had
a massive brainstem stroke, which I talk about extensively in my
blog. You
might want to read about it; it is very interesting.
It happened very unexpectedly.
Brainstem strokes
happen to less than 10% to stroke survivors. Most of
the time, brainstem strokes cause varying degrees of
damage to the motor skills but very little damage to the
cognitive abilities. In my case, my brainstem stroke
caused quadraplegia, loss of speech and various other
severe disabilities associated with losing most of your
motor skills. One of the side-effects is called
dysarthia.
I decided almost immediately after my
stroke that I was going to make the best of my situation. The
disabilities caused by my stroke were essentially all deficits
of the motor skills. I could not move my body but I have
good head control. I use an infrared headpointer to move
the mouse anywhere across the computer screen that I want.
Also, I can click one finger. I have an on-screen keyboard
that lets me type anything I like. I just move my head to
a letter on the on-screen keyboard and click.
My cognitive abilities were not affected
by my stroke, either. I already knew how to use the
computer. I just had to figure out how to make web pages
to get my on-line stroke support group started. I designed
all of the websites that make up The Stroke Network and made
several others for various places. I originally
funded everything out of my own pocket. After about five
years of doing so I knew that I had to find another way to pay
for running my website. I combined my new knowledge of
designing web pages with my knowledge with my business to create
a non-profit organization.
None of this would have been possible
without God leading the way and showing me what to do; see which
scripture verses that have
helped me along this very long journey. I owe
the Lord so much for changing my life so drastically and making
something positive out of the situation. In order to do
something positive with myself I have decided to dedicate the
rest of my life to helping other stroke survivors. I am very
driven about assisting them to find stroke support and directing
them to stroke resources on-line. It is hard to explain
but I know that this has always been God's plan for me.
I have a wonderful wife who is also my best
friend and caregiver, Missy. We have been married for over 30 years
(since 1977). She is definitely my soul mate. It is amazing to
watch her handle so much so skillfully. She has had to take on
several new roles, since I have had my stroke.
Through thick and thin , she has always been there for me. She is
always there by my side despite all of the the extremely challenging
situations we have had to go through. She has been closely at my
side, everyday, since my stroke. We have two beautiful daughters,
Traci and Erin.
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