Host: Wayne Loudon
Guest: Mel Lochran

About this episode:
Stroke has a profound impact on people and those around them. Increasingly there is a focus on the prehospital phase of care and a significant amount of research is underway to provide prehospital clinicians with the tools to aid in the identification of those patients who may benefit from specific acute therapies. In this podcast, we talk to paramedic and stroke survivor, Mel. Mel provides a compelling insight into her experience and highlights the difficulties in stroke identification and the invisible challenges of brain injury. While harrowing, Mel’s story is also one of great resilience, optimism, and determination as she completes a marathon two years on from her stroke. 

About Wayne:

Wayne is a Critical Care Paramedic and industry fellow at the Queensland University of Technology. Wayne has been heavily involved in the development of prehospital guidelines for stroke care and recently completed his PhD on the topic. His current research interests include the use of mobile technologies for prehospital neurocritical care and stroke systems of care. 

About Mel:

Mel is a Paramedic and was with Queensland Ambulance Service for 14 years. She has always been a fit and healthy person who regularly exercised. In September 2019, Mel suffered a spontaneous intercerebral left temporal parietal lobe brain hemorrhage. She was only 48 years old at the time.