Health news - actor/director Max Stafford-Clark's rehabilitation following triple stroke

Published: 6 May, 2010
by JOSH LOEB

• ILLNESS brings out kindness in other people, according to Max Stafford-Clark – but the renowned actor-director says he is also “a much nicer person” as a result of the triple stroke which struck him down four years ago, leaving him disabled.
The former Camden resident, who heads-up Holloway-based theatre company Out of Joint, was treated, after enduring a long and agonising wait for an ambulance, at the Whittington Hospital in an emergency stroke unit that has since closed.
Doctors warned he would never walk again, but he has proved them wrong.
He returned to work a month after being discharged, going on to direct several well-received productions including Andersen’s English, currently playing at the Hampstead Theatre, and The Convicts Opera, which toured in the UK and Australia.
He calls the care he received at the Whittington “on the whole, very good”, but thinks his 50-minute wait for an ambulance should set alarm bells ringing.
“It was ominous,” he says. “If the adverts on TV – which show a fire in the brain in the latter stages of a stroke – are right, every minute counts.”
Caused by blocked or burst blood vessels, stroke can lead to rapid loss of brain function if anti-clotting drugs are not administered quickly. 
Centralising of stoke services as part of NHS reforms means all stroke victims are now taken directly to specialists at University College London Hospital (UCLH), off Euston Road – much further away than the Whittington from Mr Stafford-Clark’s home in Holloway.
While the 68-year-old’s return to work was fast – too fast, some warned him at the time – the director’s rehabilitation has been gradual.
“I had to plan a journey across the room as you would plan a trip to Truro or a journey to the south of France,” he says.
 “I had rehabilitation at the Whittington, began to walk with a frame and was taken to the National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery in Queen Square. 
“My flat is 12 minutes walk from where I work. When I first went back to work, the journey took me 44 minutes. Now that’s down to 16 and my record is 14. I am going to have more leg rehabilitation. My left hand and left peripheral vision are still affected but my concentration is much better.”
Factors including smoking and high cholesterol are believed to increase the risk of stroke, but Mr Stafford-Clark says he took care of himself and enjoyed good health before his triple stroke.
“I didn’t smoke,” he says. “I went jogging twice a week.
“I was visiting a friend in New York recently and the theatre where he was working provided me with a limo.
“One day we gave Sam Robards, who is the son of Lauren Bacall and Jason Robards, a lift, and he said: ‘Is there an upside to this, apart from this getting around in a limo?’ And I said: “Yes, I don’t have to go jogging any more.’” 
Mr Stafford-Clark also visited Cuba while wheelchair-bound.
“Cuba is not disabled-friendly,” he says. “But every time I reached the cobbled edge of a pavement a brawny brown forearm would descend to my eye level to help me over.
“So I do think disability brings out the best in other people.”