Stroke victim uses chart to speak

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A woman who is "locked in" her paralysed body after a massive stroke has developed a way of communicating with her family.

Michelle Wheatley, 26, of Stockport, Greater Manchester, was bathing her baby when she suffered the seizure.

She has the rare Locked-in Syndrome and her body is completely paralysed, but she can still see, hear and think.

Miss Wheatley has a colour-coded alphabet chart to talk to partner Rick Blease and Ryan, four, and Holly, one.

The system has been developed in Stepping Hill Hospital, where Michelle has been staying since the stroke.

Cognitive function

Her family hopes she will eventually be able to return to a family home, and that the move may help her progress.

Miss Wheatley uses the alphabet system to stay involved in her children's lives, and even chooses their clothes from the internet.

Locked-in Syndrome is usually caused by a stroke or brain haemorrhage and damages the lower part of the brain, meaning patients still have cognitive function.

Ms Wheatley helps pick out clothes for her children on the internet

One of the most well-known cases was that of French journalist Jean-Dominque Bauby, who wrote his memoir The Diving Bell and The Butterfly in 1997 when he suffered Locked-In Syndrome after a stroke.

It was adapted into a film in 2008.

Michelle's father Frank said: "Anger comes in and you think, why? Why should someone so young with two young children be struck down like this?

"Michelle should have died when she was in intensive care, but she has pulled though.

"Rick obviously was shattered, emotionally and mentally. The children have responded really well to the chaos in their lives and all the disruption."

The chart means Ms Wheatley can move her head or eyes slightly up or down to indicate yes and no when letters are pointed out.

"She has not given up," Mr Wheatley said.