Eden Hills dad Matthew Berryman’s stroke inspires Talk For Me app

The Eden Hills dad says a sudden stroke changed his outlook on life – and inspired an invention that could help others who suffer the same bad luck.

Dr Matthew Berryman has created an app to help those who can’t speak due to a medical emergency communicate with nurses and loved ones.

Struck down by a haemorrhagic stroke that left him unable to talk or walk, an Adelaide engineer and computer programmer has created an app to help others who find themselves in a similar, frightening situation.

Eden Hills father-of-two Matthew Berryman, 43, was left speechless and partly paralysed for three weeks after suffering the sudden brain bleed in October last year, a rare reaction to medication he was taking.

Remarkably, after extensive rehabilitation, he has regained his ability to walk and talk, as well as learning to again play his beloved violin.

“I just collapsed on the bathroom floor at my parents’ place but couldn’t yell out because I couldn’t talk,” Dr Berryman said.

“When my parents discovered me, they called an ambulance but fireys were needed to stretcher me out … all up, I was on the floor for a good couple of hours.”

Dr Berryman recalls well the days lying in a hospital bed unable to speak, with the right side of his body completely paralysed.

For him, the hardest part was not knowing what the future held and if he’d ever be able to do simple things he’d once taken for granted, such as tying his shoe laces.

“Because of the type of stroke I had – like a bruise to the brain – it was a case of waiting to see what damage had been done once the bruising went down.

“Initially, the doctors couldn’t predict my recovery, there was a chance I would be able to walk and talk again – and a chance I wouldn’t. For me, the uncertainty was hardest.”

While in hospital he was frustrated by the unsophisticated support offered to help him communicate.

“I was given a couple of pieces of paper with symbols but very few of the symbols were relevant to me or the room I was in … I had a TV in my room but there was no TV image for me to select,” he said.

Seven months on and back at work, Dr Berryman’s new app uses image recognition to make it easier for patients to communicate with nurses or loved ones.

Talk For Me, currently in prerelease testing, will allow a patient’s phone to be customised with a list of photos and images.

“It has a little speaker icon next to each image which, if you tap it, uses text-to-speech technology to read out,” he said.

“It would allow a patient in my situation to have someone set the app up for them and the patient could tap on the speaker icon to communicate to the nurses.”

Dr Berryman said his medical emergency had changed his perspective on life.

“It has given me a new focus … (before the stroke) I was working really hard and not spending as much time with my kids (aged 10 and 13) as I could have done. It has really reshaped my life.” May is International Stroke Awareness Month.