Michael Johnson suffered a stroke in September and says he was scared and angry after attack

Michael Johnson has spoken of his anger after discovering he had suffered a stroke but insists an Olympic mindset will enable him to make a full recovery. The 51-year-old former Olympic sprint champion says he is “pretty much back to normal” after suffering a transient ischemic attack in September. Johnson, once the fastest man on the planet over 200m and 400m, said he had finished a training session at home when he felt “a strange tingling down my arm and left side”. He “decided not to take any chances” and headed straight to hospital. “After the MRI scan, I almost fell off the table. I could not walk or move my left leg,” he told the BBC. “The numbness of my arm was intense too. I could not feel my arm and moving my fingers was problematic. It was a lot of emotions. Once I was told I had suffered a stroke and I could not walk things get immediately real. “You start to think: ‘What is my life going to be like going forward? What is my quality of life going to be like? Will I be able to dress myself? Will I be able to take care of myself or will my loved ones have to take care of me?’ “I had a great team of doctors and they said that is what all stroke victims ask but unfortunately there is no answer to the questions – only time will tell. Some people make a full recovery, some make a partial recovery and how much time that takes there is no answer. That is difficult to hear and pretty scary. He added: “Doctors said the best chance of recovery was to immediately get into physical therapy. I did that two days after the stroke and I got out of bed with assistance and got behind the walker around the hospital - and ironically it was around 200m. I timed it and it took me around 15 minutes to cover that distance.

posted Saturday November 24th