Dr. Patti Vanhook:

Dr. Patti Vanhook recently defended her dissertation “Comeback of Appalachian Stroke Survivors: Interrelationships between Cognition, Function, Self-Concept, Interpersonal, and Social Relationships.”  This study focuses on the physical and emotional recovery of female stroke survivors in the Appalachian region.  This is important research because, although women have more strokes then men, they are underrepresented in both medical literature and in the collective imagination.  Dr. Vanhook’s study provides both the critical data necessary for implementing new attitudes towards rehabilitation, and it is a piece of advocacy for a marginalized group.

 Using statistical analysis, Dr. Vanhook evaluated the factors that contribute to stroke comeback and recovery.  Although her research was quantitatively sound and she answered the dissertation committee’s questions with ease and passion, the most compelling voices in the room were those of the study’s participants in attendance. 

These amazing stroke survivors come from all walks of life.  Two of them are former nurses, another is a beautician who learned to cut hair with one hand, and another is a wildlife biologist who went snowshoeing in Alaska just a few weeks after her stroke.  Several of these women shared their rehabilitation experiences, discussed the different expectations they faced as female stroke survivors, and told moving stories of determination and sheer will power.  One of the survivors had to learn to read again, one learned to walk, and another fought off the demons of depression in order to have her life back.  Each of these women, despite their different experiences with recovery, inspires.  The presence of the study’s participants made Dr. Vanhook’s defense more than just an academic event— it became a powerful testament to the strength and resilience of women. 

Dr. Vanhook’s dissertation, which has been accepted for publication by the literature review Journal of Neuroscience Nursing, represents a new direction in stroke research.  Through this study, and ones that will follow it, Dr. Vanhook provides hope and advocacy for female stroke survivors throughout the world.