MISSION VIEJO, Calif. — Mission Viejo resident Dana Schwartzberg was just 27 years old when she suffered a severe stroke that left her paralyzed and stranded overseas in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic.
The once healthy young woman told Patch that she suffered a stroke while on a business trip to Israel in 2020. Due to COVID-19 restrictions, Dana was forced to remain in Israel for most of her recovery period, during which she found herself without her family and in a dark place.
“At first I couldn’t understand what was happening and was full of confusion. My primary care team never told me that I had had a stroke, but because of my age they didn’t discuss it. I heard him doing it,” Dana told Patch. “Once I understood more about what was going on, I became so depressed that I was crying at least once a day. It was a deliberate, uncalculated fall in a place that could have been fatal if I fell. , I had a moment where I took an unsupervised risk. I wanted to do that.”I didn’t think life would continue after I had a stroke. ”
After months of treatment and physical therapy in Israel, Dana was able to move from a wheelchair to a cane and return to California, but the battle was far from over.
“There were a few things that helped me get back on my feet. When I FaceTimed my nieces and nephews for the first time, I felt guilty for wanting to die. Additionally, my cousin told me that her memory is a blessing. “She passed away. She had a brain tumor, but she had a family and a career and something to live for,” Dana said. “We often say things like ‘I would die for them’ for the people we love, but for some perverse reason I had to stay here and she didn’t. So from now on, I will not die for my loved ones, but I will live for them.”
Determined to take back her life, Dana repeatedly tried leg braces to regain the mobility she had lost due to her stroke.
Dana’s life began to change for the better when her therapist recommended she try the Bioness L300 Go, a functional electrical stimulation leg device that improves her mobility.
“You can’t waste a second chance to enjoy the gift of life… With the Bioness L300 Go Low Leg Cuff, you can wear what you want, what you want, and what shoes you want. This is a 31 As a young woman, it’s an important part of how I express myself and feel like a human woman again, not a medical product,” Dana said. “It’s helped me live longer when I’m out for a walk or exploring Disneyland. I really feel like my sleepy muscles have woken up a little. It makes an inaccessible world more accessible and fun. It makes life worth living.”
Now that she has regained her mobility, Dana told Patch that she is currently training to become a Pilates instructor and working on a 5K run.
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Dana became interested in Pilates after her physical therapist recommended she take classes to improve her mobility.
“Pilates really helped me, but Pilates is like the gateway to the Barbies of the world,” Dana said. “I have had negative experiences with instructors who don’t understand my disability, so when my body is unable to perform basic movements compared to the average person, she treats me as if I were cognitively unable to do it.” He started talking slowly and like a child, as if he was having trouble functioning.”
After completing that session, Dana decided to pursue a comprehensive Pilates teaching certification. “It is to ensure that the practice of this movement, which is so healing and helpful, is never shut out from the very demographic that could benefit dramatically from it.”
