Roger Sutherland experienced a frightening health scare but wants others to know it is preventable

This highly stressed but otherwise “fit and healthy” emergency service worker thought he was “going to die on the side of the road”. Now he’s got a message for others in stressful jobs.

An emergency service worker who suffered a mini stroke due to significant stress at work has shared his experience to prevent others from similarly preventable health scares.

The terrifying ordeal happened when Roger Sutherland and his partner were taking an afternoon walk in June 2020.

Mr Sutherland had started telling his partner a story when, only about two blocks from their home, he began to feel unwell.

Almost instantly he buckled on to the nature strip.

“It hit me really hard — I lost my speech and I couldn’t move one side of my body. I thought I was going to die on the side of the road,” the Moonee Ponds father said.

Recalling how “petrified” he felt, the then 55-year-old “knew exactly what was happening” but couldn’t form the words to communicate it to his partner.

Mr Sutherland – who only hours earlier had been lifting weights at the gym – was experiencing a transient ischaemic attack (TIA), otherwise known as a “mini stroke”.

His partner called Triple-0 and Advanced Life Support paramedics Rhiannon Smith and Shelley Portelli rushed to the scene and started treating him.

The specialised Mobile Stroke Unit arrived soon after and transported him to the Royal Melbourne Hospital, where TIA was confirmed and investigated.

According to the Stroke Foundation, TIA occurs when the blood supply to the brain is temporarily blocked. The symptoms mimic a stroke but often only occur for a few minutes.

TIA is often viewed as a “warning” sign that a larger and more debilitating stroke might occur and can be a wake-up call to reduce the risk of stroke.

One of Australia’s biggest killers and the leading cause of adult disability, an average of one Australian experiences a stroke every 19 minutes. Though around 80 per cent of cases are preventable.

Otherwise fit and healthy at the time, Mr Sutherland said his doctor was “horrified” he experienced TIA – which neurologists have since attributed to his incredibly high stress levels at the time.

“Because I was so fit and well my body did what it was supposed to do – to combat the clot,” he explained.

While he counts himself as lucky he has not suffered any ongoing impacts, it prompted him to change the course of his life.

National Stroke Week

“This episode has totally overhauled my mentality and changed how I worked,” he said.

It was while taking five months away from his job in law enforcement to recover, with the knowledge the attack had put him at risk for future strokes, that he felt motivated to spread the word.

Mr Sutherland – who has worked in law enforcement for almost four decades – is now also a certified nutritionist.

“Full of beans”, he is passionate about channelling his personal experience into coaching other shift workers about health and nutrition.

“I have personally found it so important to get on top and raise awareness of,” the now 58-year-old said.

“I call myself the shift worker coaching shift workers, teaching them to thrive and not just survive.”

To do so, he promotes the five pillars of health – prioritising sleep, nutrition, hydration, movement and stress management.

This National Stroke Week, which runs from August 8-14, he is encouraging people to familiarise themselves with the common signs of TIA.

These include a facial droop, an inability to lift arms, slurred speech and time.

“Stroke and TIAs don’t discriminate, and as I found out, these episodes can happen to anyone at any age, so it’s important to learn the signs so you can seek treatment immediately,” he said.

The foundation’s chief executive, Sharon McGowan, said the same mindset of reducing exposure to illness, as seen through the COVID pandemic, could be applied to stroke prevention.

“When 80 per cent of all strokes are preventable, why would you not want to know your risk and reduce it?”

This includes addressing high blood pressure and high cholesterol and reducing alcohol, moving more and quitting smoking.