A stroke hit Madam Tan Siew Geok just days after she gave birth to her third child and was resting at home.

Recalling the day in 2003, the 43-year-old housewife said in Mandarin: “I wanted to come out alive. I looked around at my family at the hospital bedside and told myself I wasn’t alone.”

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She added: “I’d wake up every day and tell the nurse, ‘It’s wonderful to see this world again’.”

Madam Tan said when the stroke occurred, she tried to stand up but felt unsteady and dizzy. “I felt like my body was being blocked and my chest was very tight.”

Luckily, her confinement nanny was there and she immediately took Madam Tan to hospital.

Even so, by the time she reached the hospital, Madam Tan’s left side was paralysed, she could not speak and her left vision was blurred.

She said: “Strangely, I wasn’t scared. I just wanted to get better.”

She spent three months in hospital and diligently went for her physiotherapy and speech therapy sessions.

She also exercised on her own.

After her daily hour-long physiotherapy, she would do more leg and arm lifts when she had returned to her ward. She was so determined to get well that she barred her young children from visiting.

She also did not want them to see her as she was. Her mother-in-law took care of them.

Madam Tan’s husband, an air-con technician, visited her almost every day.

She said: “What I gained from this experience is a stronger family bond. My husband and I grew closer.

“Now I know he’ll stick by me through thick and thin. There’s nothing like a difficult situation to reveal a person’s true feelings.”

But the stroke took a toll on her.

She quit her administrator’s job at Singapore Institute of Management as she could no longer work on the computer for long periods.

She still has difficulty walking and takes slow steps to compensate for her lack of balance.

Madam Tan also had to give up driving as she still has blurred vision in her left eye and her reflexes have become slower.

She said: “I could help support the family previously but now our family is classified as low-income.

“My kids ask why my husband and I used to take them to McDonald’s but don’t do that now. I explain to them that money is tight.”

Madam Tan hopes to regain her mobility one day.

She goes for acupuncture once a week and exercises at the fitness corner near her Bishan home for an hour every day.

She said: “I want to do many things still. When I see people volunteering at old folks’ homes, I tell myself I want to get well and be able to do that too.”

RECOGNISE THE SYMPTOMS

• Check the person’s face Ask him to smile and observe if one side of the face seems weaker than the other or if it droops.
• Check arm movement Ask the person to raise both arms and see if one arm drifts downwards.
• Check the person’s speech Ask the person to repeat a simple sentence after you and note if the speech sounds abnormal or slurred.  

Seek treatment If any of the signs occur, get the person to a hospital or the nearest doctor immediately.

WHO ARE AT RISK

• Age: The possibility of having a stroke doubles for every decade of life after the age of 55.
• Family history: Your stroke risk is greater if a parent, grandparent, sister or brother has had a stroke.
• Gender: Stroke is more common in men than in women but more than half of total stroke deaths occur in women.
• Pregnant women
• Transient ischemic attacks: These produce stroke-like symptoms, inflict no lasting damage and are strong predictors of stroke.
• Smoking
• Alcohol abuse
• Prior heart attack or stroke
• High blood pressure
• Diabetes mellitus
• High blood cholesterol
• Diet: Those high in saturated fat, trans fat, cholesterol, salt or calories.
• Physical inactivity
• Obesity
• Use of oral contraceptive: Women above the age of 30 who use high-oestrogen oral contraceptives.
• Carotid or other artery disease
• Atrial fibrillation: This heart rhythm disorder raises the risk of blood clots and, thus, the risk of stroke.