Published: June 13, 2025
Estimated reading time: 9 minutes
Every day, millions of people go for walks — up and down the aisles of the grocery store, around the cul-de-sacs of their neighborhood or through the parks with their dogs.
For many, it’s almost mindless, a small break from the stress of their day-to-day lives.
But for David Todd, simply placing one foot correctly in front of the other is stressful.
“I can’t do things now that I used to in the past,” David said. “My endurance … I get tired easier than normal people. I get brain fatigue. Sometimes, it’s not that my body’s tired; it’s that my brain wants to shut down and recalibrate.”
Two days a week, David puts his brain and his balance to the test in the Norton Mobility Lab, using advanced technology and tools to regain his abilities. On this particular Tuesday, David is using the Gait Real-time Analysis Interactive Lab (GRAIL). It’s a multisensory system built for people with impaired walking.
This has been David’s reality for nearly three years. Slowly but surely, he’s improving.
“I feel good [now],” David said. “We talk about neuroplasticity [the ability of the brain to reprogram itself after injury], and it’s true. You don’t see it now, but somewhere down the road, the switch is going to flip and then everything for the most part will be gone and you’re doing things now that you did before. You have to be patient and you have to keep working on it.”
David’s life changed forever on July 3, 2022.
It was 2:45 a.m., unusually late for the self-described early bird. He and his wife were watching a movie on the couch. He began to feel weird.
David — who has Type 1 diabetes — thought this strange feeling was simply his blood sugar getting low. He asked his wife for his glucometer. She placed it in his right hand. He dropped it. Again, same result. Then a third time. Then David’s wife noticed he didn’t sound like himself. She told him he was slurring his words.
Worried, he stood up and walked clumsily to the bathroom, needing the wall for support. He looked at himself in the mirror and saw the droop in his face.
He knew what was happening.
“I knew it; I knew a stroke was occurring,” David said. “But how bad it was, I did not know. And I knew — on my way to the hospital — that my life had changed forever and there was nothing I could do. And that was stressful.”
David’s went directly to Norton Brownsboro Hospital, a Comprehensive Stroke Center certified by DNV. When he arrived in the emergency department, the only word he could say was “stroke.” It had been 40 minutes since his symptoms started.
David spent five days in intensive care, receiving blood-thinning medication to help treat his condition.
From there, he was discharged to begin the rehabilitation process.
David started at Norton Neuroscience Institute Cressman Neurological Rehabilitation, where the team provided outpatient physical, occupational and speech therapy three days a week. Eventually, he transitioned to Norton Specialty Rehabilitation Center – St. Matthews.
That’s where David was introduced to the Norton Mobility Lab and Robert Beury, M.Ed., a rehabilitation activity-based technician. Robert became David’s de facto personal trainer, working with his physical therapists to individually craft David’s therapy program and get his gait and balance back.
“I start very conservatively when we do our first bit of training,” Robert said. “And I have various speeds that I can put [David] at, the velocities of the interactions, and I keep track of how those change over time. As we kept going, we began to see the old numbers we were using weren’t challenging enough, and he was interacting more. Then he started to walk. And in time, we got to a point where we were doing all we could do.”
The two have been working together for roughly a year, using the GRAIL’s 10 motion-capture cameras to analyze and interact with specialized software. David was able to walk, reach, turn, balance and test his muscles with unique movements — all processes that can be difficult for stroke patients.
“It’s so daunting to get to a point where you are post-stroke, but the body begins to heal itself almost immediately,” Robert said. “So what it really needs is interaction. And that’s why I think this equipment is so vital, because it is interactive activity.”
The Norton Mobility Lab is the only facility in Kentucky with GRAIL gait analysis, allowing David and Robert a personalized approach to rehab. The dual-belt treadmill and virtual-reality environments allowed them to measure and analyze David’s walking pattern and target ways to improve it.
Every 40 seconds, someone in the United States has a stroke, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. That means there are more than 795,000 strokes each year in the U.S.
Stroke is a leading cause of long-term disability, and it’s estimated one person dies from a stroke every three minutes. But, advancements in medical treatment and increased awareness have improved both the survival rate and quality of life for survivors.
Stroke can affect almost anyone, so it’s important for people to take steps to reduce their risk, such as maintaining a healthy diet, exercising regularly, not smoking, and managing stress.
Norton Brownsboro Hospital offers extensive, comprehensive stroke care: It’s prepared around the clock to deliver lifesaving and brain-saving stroke treatment by restoring blood flow to the brain when seconds count.
The symptoms of stroke can be easiest to remember through the acronym BE FAST*. They are:
A stroke typically happens suddenly, with no gradual progression.
That said, many patients will recover quickly and fully from a stroke. Some may have post-stroke conditions such as difficulty swallowing, weakness and paralysis, incontinence, difficulty speaking or understanding, emotional challenges, or poor attention span.
If a stroke happens on the right side of the brain, there may be left-side weakness, impulsiveness, overconfidence in abilities and vision issues to deal with. A stroke on the left side of the brain can be associated with weakness on the right side of the body, along with difficulty speaking, reading, writing or understanding language, and cautious behavior.
Norton Neuroscience Institute Resource Centers offer a number of services to patients recovering from strokes, including support groups, exercise classes, art and music therapy, and more. The effects of a stroke also can impact someone’s mental health. Changes and stress that come with caring for a stroke survivor can put caregivers and family members at risk for depression and anxiety.
“It’s important to remember stroke is a brain injury, and patients need a lot of reinforcement and repetition,” said Rosa Hart, BSN, R.N., SCRN, patient navigator with Norton Neuroscience Institute Resource Center. “So I’ll talk to patients and their families a lot about how to avoid stroke at home. And they may have received all of that information in the hospital, but they probably only remember a little piece of it. So knowing they have a human they can ask questions to when they don’t even know for sure what to do, helps them know they’re not left out on their own with no one to call.”
Rehabilitation services at Norton Healthcare offer specialized outpatient physical, occupational and speech therapy at locations downtown, on the Norton Brownsboro Hospital campus and on the Norton Healthcare – St. Matthews campus. These programs offer access to some of the most advanced technology and specialized services in one location to help with gait, balance, strength, flexibility, speech, fine motor skills, swallowing, driving, cognition, vision and more.
“Stroke symptoms may be reversed, but a lot of the time patients need that rehab after the fact,” Rosa said. “That could be in a facility for a while, until they get strong enough to go home. But we’ve learned, with neuroplasticity, the healing process can go on for years. So going to outpatient offices, giving access to physical, occupational and speech therapies to help people get back to their natural functioning, is really pivotal.”
Nearly three years since his stroke, David continues outpatient physical, occupational and speech therapy, showing steady progress despite small, periodic setbacks.
He’s returned to his career at the Pleasure Ridge Park Fire Protection District, though he has shifted into an administrative role. He’s also slowly returned to his favorite hobbies, with a few adjustments. Cooking sessions are now completed under the watchful eye of his wife as sous chef. Hiking and backpacking are done with more caution, and the 5K races are run with an eye on finishing, not on time and speed.
Through it all, he’s thankful for the team that cared for him three years ago and continues that care today.
“We try something new every day,” David said. “We cook dinner more together and we do things differently. We have family help, so that’s important. But I have had a great team here. They’ve pushed me in ways that have helped make progress every step of the way. I tell people all the time, be positive all the way and keep going. Don’t stop.”
For more on David’s recovery journey, watch this video interview with David and Rosa.