Stroke Victim Finds Freedom and Independence Thanks to Her Lingraphica Communication Device
Ruby “Jo” Free was born in Lorena, TX in 1935 and has been a lifelong Lone Star state resident. She met her husband Richard, who passed away several years ago from cancer, when they attended the University of Corpus Christi (now part of Texas A&M).
Together, they were a fitness force to be reckoned with: Jo ran and cycled; Richard played football, basketball, and volleyball for the U.S. Army, and had a stint in minor league baseball. They were married, had three children, nine grandchildren, and a great-grandchild.
Early in her career Jo worked as a diagnostician in the field of education. Always an advocate for those with special needs, she advanced through the years and retired as the Director of Special Education Services with Comal County.
In retirement, Jo was active as ever. She would run five miles, three to five times each week, and joined a weekly spin class. But, at age 66, Jo — the determined, fit, and independent woman who lived life on her terms — had a massive stroke.
How A Massive Stroke Impacted Jo’s Ability to Speak for Several Years
“The doctors told us that if she had not been in such excellent health, she would not have survived,” said Nancy, Jo’s daughter and full-time caregiver.
After her stroke, Jo went through a period of therapy and rehabilitation for two years. But after her progress stagnated, Jo and her family were told “there wasn’t much else that could be done” to help her speech, and the therapy stopped.
For fifteen years, Jo had about fifteen words in her vocabulary, including her favorite phrase, “Golly today!,” which she used all the time, for no apparent reason. In April 2016, she became ill with the flu and required hospitalization. At that time, Jo was placed in a rehabilitation hospital where she received therapy services for two weeks.
Upon discharge, Jo was referred to speech-language pathologist (SLP) Julie Lindenau from Advanced Home Health. With 25 years of experience as an SLP, Julie began working with Jo in June 2016. After almost six months of therapy and practice, Jo increased her vocabulary to about thirty spontaneous words, but Julie knew that there was more Jo wanted to say.
Jo Makes Unexpected Progress with a Lingraphica Speech Generating Device
“After a few months, I realized that Jo could benefit from using a Lingraphica speech-generating device,” said Julie. “I’ve been a fan of Lingraphica for years. The AllTalk™ is user-friendly and easy to use, and I’m not very good at technology, but even I can figure it out.”
So Julie and Jo began a trial period with a Lingraphica AllTalk, and by December 2016, Jo had her very own device. Jo’s daughter had some initial concerns about Jo’s ability to navigate through the device, but those quickly faded as she saw the progress her mother made.
Within six months, Joe could speak in full sentences with the help of her AllTalk and prompting through visual mouthing cues. She now has several personalized pages on her AllTalk, including a page called “All About Jo,” which features her sons, daughter, friends, hobbies, health, and food. Jo practices with her AllTalk every day, pressing an icon over and over again to hear it speak a word to her until she can say it herself.
