Sunbury Downs College student Natalee Wood back at school after stroke
After suffering a severe stroke at just 17-years-old, one Sunbury Downs College student has defied the odds just in time for the start of the school year.
North West
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By all medical predictions, 18-year-old Natalee Wood shouldn’t have gone back school this week.
The Sunbury Downs College student was at home one Saturday morning in late 2017 when she suffered a grade five bleed brain aneurysm rupture, which lead to a severe stroke.
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Through more than six months in hospital, 12 operations and intensive rehab, Ms Wood had to learn to walk and talk again, though she still has paralysis on the left side of her body.
Last week, she returned to the classroom to begin her last year of school.
After having her stroke, paramedics arrived in minutes and within 15 minutes of leaving Sunbury she was on an operating table at Royal Melbourne Hospital.
Ms Wood said she loved defying the expectations of her doctors and nurses.
“It feels awesome. I love doing it,” she said.
“My goal at the moment is to get to graduation and to finish school.”
After school finishes Ms Wood said she wanted to go to Deakin University and study a double degree of nursing and midwifery.
A driving force for recovery was neurosurgeon Dr Bhadu Kavar and the nursing team at Royal Melbourne Hospital.
“The best thing is the feeling when I go into hospital and my doctors and my neurosurgeons and nurses cry because I’m doing so well,” Ms Wood said.
Mum Michelle Wood said the family wouldn’t have been able to get through it without the support of their community.
“We’ve been overwhelmed with the community support. People have helped. The school community have helped make it possible for Natalee to go back to school,” she said.
“A lot of the teachers have checked on her, the Sunbury Scouts, the softball club and people we don’t even know. They’ve just come out of the woodwork.”
After four months at home, the proud mum said her daughter worked hard every day — but the real healing had only just began.
“Some days are harder than others, but she turns around and says she can’t change it, ‘I’ll work. I’ll make it work. I’ll find a way to get through it,’” she said.
“She’s had to fight every single day.”
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