“I don’t feel well. Something weird is going on,” thought Josée Boudreault in the dead of night during a family vacation in July 2016. She then woke up her partner, Louis-Philippe Rivard.
“When I looked at Josée, I immediately thought of the Heart & Stroke ad where a man has a stroke in his kitchen. She had all the FAST signs of stroke,” says Louis-Philippe. One side of Josée’s face was drooping, she had trouble speaking and her right side was paralyzed. Louis-Philippe alerted the hotel reception to call 9-1-1 right away.
The stroke took away all my words, including my daughters’ names, which were chosen with such love and care.
The speechless radio and TV host
The ambulance arrived quickly at the hotel and the paramedics took Josée to the closest hospital specializing in stroke care. Then came the diagnosis: At 47, she had just experienced an ischemic stroke. A blood clot in one of her legs had passed through a patent foramen ovale (PFO), a small hole in her heart that she didn’t know she had, and traveled to her brain. Josée underwent a delicate procedure called endovascular thrombectomy (EVT) to remove the blood clot.
When she woke up, Josée, then an author and radio and TV host, was no longer able to speak. “The stroke took away all my words, including my daughters’ names, which were chosen with such love and care. It also robbed me of my best stories, those that I had pleasure sharing. The only thing I could say was ‘awèye’, a colloquial way of saying ‘come on’ in French. And I said it very, very often!”
Humour and determination
Back at home, Josée started rehabilitation. In addition to her sessions with specialists, she could count on the constant support of her partner and daughters, who helped her learn the words she had completely forgotten. “My girls helped me practice words with children’s flash cards.”
At first, some of the most difficult tasks for Josée were buying groceries and following a recipe: “Imagine you’re trying to prepare a meal and you don’t remember the recipe anymore, but you can’t read it either. We tested lots of ‘new’ recipes for supper, and they weren’t all a success,” she laughs.
Josée Boudreault and her family.
Making an opportunity out of an ordeal
A year after the stroke, Josée and Louis-Philippe became spokespeople for Heart & Stroke’s FAST campaign. “When I had my stroke, I knew very little about the condition. Over time, I learned that a stroke can happen to anyone, at any time, regardless of their age. I also learned that recognizing the signs of stroke and quickly calling 9-1-1 can help us save the people we love. You have to act FAST FAST FAST!
Today, Josée uses her experience to add depth and energy when telling her story to audiences big and small, which she now does with Louis-Philippe by her side. Together, they wrote two new books about her journey and their life as a couple. “I’m happy with the life I was able to build with my family after my stroke. It’s a beautiful life and I’m proud of it.”
- Know the FAST signs of stroke
- Learn about women's unique risk factors for stroke
- Find out more about recovering from a stroke
