In our MindLenses Patient Testimonial Series, we interview patients who had a direct experience with MindLenses therapy. They were referred to us by their therapists (medical doctors and other health professionals) who can prescrive and administer MindLenses.
Click below to watch a short video from this patient interview!
Patient’s situation
- Name: Paola T.
- Age: 68
- Diagnosis: aphasia and motor impairment following brain hemorrage in April 2022
- MindLenses therapy done in: spring 2024
- MindLenses therapy provided by: dr. Ferroni, physiatrist of the local health unit of “USL Toscana Nord-Ovest” (pertaining to the public health system)
- Main improvements after MindLenses:
The interview
The T. family lives in a quiet street not far from the center of Livorno, a charming port town in the north of Tuscany. Surrounded by the scent of jasmine, I ring the bell on an immaculate white plastered stone wall. After one flight of what are probably century-old stone stairs, I am welcomed in an apartment where a young woman – one of the daughters of Paola and Maurizio T. – is trying to convince two young children to leave their grandparents’ house and go eat dinner. I do have an appointment with Paola and Maurizio; I have talked on the phone with Maurizio, but I’ve never seen Paola. Maurizio helps his wife to get up from the kitchen table and sees both of us to the living room, a cosy environment with a piano, pillows, and a lot of plants.
As I will soon learn, Paola, 68 years old, is severely aphasic, and, for the most part of the interview, her husband will fill in for her. She gives out the impression of a locked-in person: she follows and listens attentively to all of what is going on, but she cannot express herself verbally. As a former high school teacher of Latin and ancient Greek, which are still studied in Italian schools (“they teach you how to think”, we say), it must be heartbreaking.
Editor’s note: the answers to the following questions were mostly given by Paola’s husband Maurizio. Paola’s language production is severely impaired; typically, she can utter single words or start, but not finish, whole sentences.
What happened to Paola?
Maurizio: In April 2022 we were just about ready to enjoy our retirement which had just started, when Paola suffered cerebral bleeding. She was always fit, she never smoked. After the event, through which she never lost consciousness, she underwent brain surgery to suck out the remains of the liquids. The left side of the brain was the most affected [resulting in language impairments and partial loss of right motor abilities on the right side of the body]. Immediately, she lost the ability to speak. Among the medicines she was given there was an anti-seizure medication, which was at some point paused upon a doctor’s suggestion, and then one year ago she had an epileptic seizure. Unfortunately, this event [the epileptic seizure] has made her take a turn back to the progress she’d managed to do [Paola did MindLenses therapy in the meantime].
How did you find out about MindLenses?
We met doctor Ferroni (a physiatrist) in Viareggio, who recommended we do the MindLenses therapy with her colleague doctor Nuti (a speech therapist) in Lucca as part of Paola’s other speech therapy interventions. They immediately struck us as particularly capable professionals.
How long did the MindLenses therapy last?
I think we went there [in Lucca, where doctor Ferroni works] for 10 sessions [10 sessions is the standard length of MindLenses therapy]. We’d travel all the way there to do MindLenses, two or three times a week [Lucca is a 40 minutes drive from Livorno].
How was the experience of wearing the prismatic lenses?
[Paola manages to answer] Very good.
Weren’t you bothered by the visual shift induced by the lenses?
[Paola] No. [Maurizio] She could even manage all the tests at the beginning! [Maurizio here refers to the prismatic adaptation part of MindLeses, which is performed at the beginning of each of the ten sessions.]
Did you manage to perform the arm movement yourself, unsupported?
[Proudly] Yes.
What is Paola doing now, therapy side?
We started going to Memento, in Pisa [Memento is a neurorehabilitation center]. It is closer to us compared to Lucca. They have neuropsychologists specialized in aphasia, speech therapists and physiotherapists.
Paola and Maurizio’s future
Paola’s husband, Maurizio, is an engineer in the biomedical field, and worked all his life in USL Toscana Nord-Ovest, the local health hub that took care of Paola during and after the hemorrhage. During his job he was, among other things, following the tenders to purchase new medical equipment. He was already retired when the group of dr. Ferroni decided to equip their hospital with MindLenses – but he’s glad they did it. Rehabilitation isn’t one path upwards: Paola and Maurizio’s lives have changed, and, with three grandchildren, they now deserve to get all the help they can!
