When Rolf Zartner experienced three strokes in March last year, followed by a devastating fourth after life-saving surgery, he was given – at best – a five per cent chance of survival.
But Rolf, a managing director at Deutsche Bank in London and lover of extreme fitness challenges, would not be written off so easily.
From the point of him waking from more than three weeks in a coma, he resolved this would not be the reality for him, and began to plan for a future as full as his life was until March 21, 2020.
And on March 21 this year – a year to the day that stroke struck – he ran a half-marathon, having pursued a punishing neurorehabilitation and training regime which begun even while he was still in hospital.
“I knew they expected me to die, so that made me become very, very determined. I got out of my hospital bed and began to walk around the aisles on the ward, and then over the days and weeks, I started to jog.
“I saw the doctor who felt I may not recover. I got out of bed and walked over to him – ‘Don’t write me off, doctor’, I said to him. He was amazed.
“And from when I got home, my training began again, gradually, but my determination since I woke from my coma has not decreased.
“I know doctors say I’m a medical miracle, but for me, it was about setting targets and working towards them.”
It was while training for an Iron Man extreme fitness challenge – only shortly after securing a promotion at work – that Rolf sustained the injury that would lead to his strokes. While completing his swimming training in Fuerteventura on March 7, unbeknown to him at that time, he sustained a double artery dissection in his neck.
“I swam 4,000 metres and sprinted the last part when my neck made a weird twist,” recalls Rolf.
“I was in quite a bit of pain afterwards, particularly in my jaw, but I didn’t pay too much attention to it. The pain became stronger in the two weeks afterwards, so I went to see my GP.
“She didn’t recognise anything was seriously wrong, except a muscle spasm, and told me to take ibuprofen. But while I didn’t realise it, the clots had been building up, and that same night, 12 hours later, was when I had my strokes.”
Rolf’s wife was the first to know something was terribly wrong, after her husband woke during the night.
“She asked what was wrong and I said something, but she asked me to repeat it. I was slurring my words and she couldn’t understand what I was saying,” he recalls.
“I was in much more pain and then realised I didn’t have feeling in my left side. She called an ambulance.”
Rushed to St George’s Hospital in London from their Twickenham home, it was established that Rolf had experienced three strokes as a result of the dissection two weeks earlier.
Having underwent surgery which was to save his life, Rolf then had a further stroke which caused complications through lung and kidney infections, which meant his outlook looked bleak.
More than three weeks in a coma and eight weeks in intensive care took its toll on Rolf, to the point where thinking about the future was his only salvation.
“I had my surgery two days before the UK went into lockdown and after that time I couldn’t see anyone. I wasn’t able to see my wife and daughter. It was very boring, very difficult being in hospital, and many weeks passed by somehow,” he says.
“I woke from my coma like a toddler. I couldn’t do basic things like brush my teeth, it was shocking, my life had been turned upside down.
“I didn’t really know what to do, so began to think about getting back to running. I began jogging while still on the hospital ward, but a week after I got home, my training began again.
“While I had problems with my left shoulder, arm and hand, and they continue even now, I never had paralysis in my legs – so although it probably looked a bit funny, my ability to run was never hindered by what had happened.
“A lot of effort went into my training, it was very important to me that I could do this. I started with 400 metres, then went to one kilometre, then three kilometres, then five, ten and finally the half marathon.”
But for Rolf, the accomplishment does not end there, and plans for the next stage of recovery are already in motion with him set to undergo stem cell therapy in Bratislava.
“I was getting to the point where I thought ‘Should I stop here? Should I accept the recovery that I have made?’ But that’s not something I want to do,” he says.
“From my body point of view, my hand hasn’t recovered although I have done well otherwise, but my brain is my concern. I have a job which needs a lot of brain input, and while I can live with how my hand is, I want to have the best possible chance of processing thoughts and facts.
“I am very lucky that I am able financially to have stem cell therapy, so I thought why not? It’s a fact that 99 per cent of people who had an injury like I did are dead and because I survived, I want to do all I can.
“I’m not allowed to swim anymore and can’t go to a higher altitude than 4,000m – which means no more mountain climbing, I have climbed Kilimanjaro before my strokes, but that can’t happen now – although that feels a small price to pay for the fact I am alive.”
And while Rolf’s phenomenal determination has been key in getting him through the trauma of the past year, he credits the support of those around him as helping him to reach this point.
“My wife has been amazing and I could not have got through this without her. She saw me in a coma when I was at the very bottom and has been there all the way,” says Rolf.
“The bank have stood by me too, they have displayed role model behaviour. Of course you worry what will happen with your job, how can you afford a life in London if you no longer have that, but they supported me from the start, enabling me to do my job while also having time for therapy.
“This past year has been very difficult, of course, but reminds me of how lucky I am in what I have and what I have overcome.”
Rolf has been supported in his incredible recovery by the Neuro Rehab Practice, based in Teddington, with consultant neurophysiotherapist Richard Sealy overseeing his therapy sessions.
“A key area of our focus together has been around his left arm,” says Richard.
“Rolf’s neurophysiotherapy sessions have been based on reducing his left shoulder pain, increasing his arm range of motion and working on his hand dexterity.
“As a result of Rolf’s strokes, he presents with apraxia affecting his left arm combined with reduced sensation and attention towards his left side. He has difficulties with finding the correct movement patterns he needs to move objects around in his hand or to participate in some activities of daily living.
“The secondary consequences of apraxia can result in disuse of the affected area causing soft tissue shortening, weakness and overcompensation of his other arm.
“Rolf’s sessions involve rediscovering the appropriate movement patterns, by disrupting the reinforced abnormal established patterns and creating an errorless learning within his sessions. Task specific repetition has been a key focus using adapted constraint induced movement therapy (CIMT) that Rolf then practices intensively outside his therapy sessions.
“A significant challenge with apraxia is the frustration and therefore making sessions and activities as functionally relevant and interesting is a key to ’normalising’ Rolf’s hand/arm movements.
“We’ve used technologies such as The NeuroBall from Neurofenix, as well as more novel interventions such as solitaire, Lego, table tennis and many other functional activities.”
Rolf’s recovery has been of great motivation to the whole team at the Neuro Rehab Practice, says Richard, as well as the wider world via social media.
“Throughout his sessions we’ve used film footage of Rolf’s progression as a way of reinforcing the realisation of the progression for him and, with Rolf’s permission, we’ve added these to our Instagram feed and publish them as #myfunctionalfriday, to encourage others with ideas of ways to try and engage functionally with their own affected arm in activities at home following a neurological diagnosis,” he adds.
“Rolf’s return to running and motivational drive has been a key factor in his recovery as well as have a significant impact on us as a team.
“One of our staff members was directly inspired by Rolf’s achievement with his running that they went from never running to gradually training and finally ran a half marathon on the same day that Rolf ran his.”
