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10/12/2016 08:30 AMIn January 2011, Ray Radovich was shoveling snow when he felt neck pain. He went inside to lie down. Minutes later, Ray was in the throes of a heart attack and collapsed, unconscious. His wife, Mary Lou, was by his side as medics arrived and tried to revive Ray while racing to Yale New-Haven Hospital’s Emergency Room, where a last-ditch procedure found a blood clot in Ray’s heart. Doctors removed it, and Ray’s heart began beating again.
Ray wasn’t out of the woods yet. During the crisis, Ray’s brain had been devoid of oxygen (anoxic) for at least 30 minutes. Ray was left in a coma. The 59 year-old remained unresponsive and on life support for nearly four weeks, but thanks to a bit of a miracle and lot of work with Gaylord Hospital recovery services, that’s where Ray’s remarkable story, and his return to life, begins.
Within two years of his heart attack and coma, Ray fully returned to golfing, running his IT business, and enjoying every minute with Mary Lou, their children, and grandchildren.
Ray credits his family, a positive attitude, and a desire to get back to the things he loves with motivating him toward recovery—but he says he owes his ability to regain speech, mobility, and surpass so many physical and cognitive milestones due to the support, care, and therapy he received through Gaylord Hospital, where Ray now serves as a volunteer peer mentor.
On Saturday, Oct. 15, Ray will be honored as this year’s Ambassador at the sixth annual Family-Friendly Halloween Benefit Party at the Hamden Elks Club to benefit Gaylord Hospital.
“We are pleased to recognize Ray Radovich as this year’s ambassador,” says event organizer and stroke survivor Kim D’Angelo. “This event is just as much about raising money for Gaylord stroke care as it is about providing information to attendees on stroke awareness.”
All proceeds benefit Gaylord Hospital’s Stroke and Traumatic Brain Injury programs. Headquartered in Wallingford, not-for-profit Gaylord offers a long-term acute care hospital specializing in care and treatment for people with complex medical and intensive rehabilitation issues. Gaylord has outpatient therapy centers in Wallingford, Cheshire and North Haven.
Ray says he’s humbled to be recognized on behalf of Gaylord, but the greater reward is helping and inspiring others to regain their lives.
He says his recovery was also spurred on by the spirit of hope conveyed by many in his life, from family to friends stretching back to Seymour high school classmates and up to those he’s come to know through his business, Turnkey.
An Unlikely Recovery
Back in early February 2011, Ray had been in a coma for 3 ½ weeks in the hospital ICU, with very little brain activity registering. His kidneys, liver, and lungs were failing. Protocol called for removing life support to see if Ray would breathe, on his own, for 12 hours. If he did, he could be moved to Gaylord to work on recovery.
“The doctors’ expectation was I wouldn’t make it,” says Ray. “I made it.”
Even then, doctors warned Ray’s family that he would likely need to spend the rest of life using a feeding tube, and likely would never walk or talk again. Two days later, Ray shocked everyone. Mary Lou and Elizabeth, the couple’s oldest daughter, were by Ray’s beside with the newest member of the Radovich family, baby Danielle. Ray had celebrated her christening with the family in late 2010.
“They prop me up in the bed, Mary Lou holds my hand and comes up close to me, and Elizabeth says, ‘Dad this is your new granddaughter, Danielle,” says Ray. “And I opened my eyes and said, ‘What a beautiful baby.’ Then I closed my eyes.”
A nurse and doctor in the room also witnessed the event. Within days, Ray was transferred to Gaylord to begin a rehabilitation regime of physical, occupational, psychological, communication, and speech therapies. Through it all, Ray faced huge challenges. He had a complete loss of muscle strength and muscle memory, and paralysis of his left side and especially his left leg. Words he wanted to say were locked in his head; others had simply disappeared. Ray struggled to remember the names of people, places, and everyday objects.
As Ray puts it, “My memory was erased” by the brain trauma he’d suffered.
Gaylord’s goals were to get Ray well enough to walk again, regain his words and speech, and recover as much of his memory as possible. Ray added his own goals, too.
“I wanted to fix a computer and hit a golf ball,” says Ray, who relied on reviewing among 60,000 photos stored on his computer to help regain memories of special family occasions and other events in his life.
Gaylord therapists helped him retrain his memory and regain other abilities. Ray especially credits the staff for recognizing the importance of reaching goals through personal interests.
One speech therapist kick-started Ray’s now-fluid speech by integrating his love of debugging computers into his recovery, while an occupational therapist (OT) later translated Ray’s impressive post-trauma golf showings into top percentile recovery markers.
“I was at Gaylord February through August, seven months,” says Ray. “The average stay is 28 days, but I needed a lot of help, and I got it.”
Ray was later moved to Traurig House, an on-campus group-living home that helps patients rebuild the skills needed to transition back to independent living. One of his issues?
“My left leg still wouldn’t work,” says Ray, who was rehabbing at Traurig House during the week and going home on weekends at the time.
“I had to grab my left ankle and pull my leg into the car. Then one day around April or May I got into the van, and I sat down and lifted my leg—without grabbing my left ankle—and it went in. That day was so stunning.”
Ray had also decided to stop using a wheelchair that spring, navigating stretches on foot and simply leaning on something when he tired (he didn’t use a cane). In May, a friend encouraged Ray to try hitting a golf ball again. At first, Ray said no, afraid that he would miss the ball.
“I said, ‘I was in a wheelchair last week— I can’t hit a golf ball!’ So he leaves, and I turn and there’s Mary Lou and my son Tom and they say, ‘You have to do that.’ They called him; he turned around and came back, and we went over to the Pine Orchard Club,” says Ray. “I stood on the range with an eight iron, and the first swing I took, I hit the ball perfect.”
Within a short time, Ray went on to play four holes of golf. Then, on a “beautiful day” he played 18 holes at Yale’s challenging New Haven course. At the time, Ray was still working with his occupational therapist (OT) and mentioned he’d just shot a golf score of 78, including three birdies, at Yale.
“I must say, they follow the percentages at Gaylord, and they keep pushing until you reach those percentages. So at the time, I was doing these computer games and other therapies and I was in the 30th percentile,” says Ray. “So my OT heard I shot a 78 and he said, ‘What percentage of people can break 80?’”
As it turns out, “he found out that only two percent of the world can break 80” on an 18-hole course, says Ray, laughing. “He said, ‘Has anybody written down that you can hit a golf ball?’ He wrote that down and two weeks later, I was discharged.”
Ray went on to start a golf clinic at Gaylord to help others.
“This golf thing also helps to remind myself that I am critical of myself, so I come away with something, too,” he says. “It’s also heartwarming to see people get better. When I see a young man who is swinging a golf club with one arm, and he hits the ball in the center of the club, and he smiles and says, ‘They said I couldn’t do that,’...the better they do, the more encouraged they are to try more.”
Ray also enjoys participating in golf tournaments, especially for charities, such as this September’s Connecticut Draft Horse Rescue tourney in Portland.
Earlier this year, Ray was invited to join Gaylord’s new Peer Mentor program. He completed training in July and visits Gaylord facilities every Thursday to meet with individuals working through all stages of recovery.
“Many of them have suffered strokes or been in an accident where their body or brain has been compromised. I try to tell them this is the best place for you, and you are going to get better. I think I’m a living example of paying attention to what they say at Gaylord,” says Ray. “I see these people that are trying very hard, and I tell them, ‘In the middle of horrible, you are doing wonderful.’”
The sixth annual Family-Friendly Halloween Benefit Party for Gaylord Hospital is Saturday, Oct. 15, from 6 to 11 p.m. at Hamden Elks Club, 175 School Street, Hamden. Tickets, $5 for children under 10 and $20 ages 11 and up, can be purchased at www.gaylord.org/halloween.