Mini-stroke sufferer from Melton helps to raise awareness

A Melton man is raising awareness after a referral to hospital by his optician led to life-saving treatment of his mini stroke.
Terry Humm, 57, of Melton Mowbray, is raising awareness after a referral to hospital by his optician in Melton Mowbray led to life-saving treatmentTerry Humm, 57, of Melton Mowbray, is raising awareness after a referral to hospital by his optician in Melton Mowbray led to life-saving treatment
Terry Humm, 57, of Melton Mowbray, is raising awareness after a referral to hospital by his optician in Melton Mowbray led to life-saving treatment

Terry Humm, 57, was driving for a day out at Burghley Horse Trials last month when his eyesight suddenly became blurred with very pronounced double vision.

He said: “My sudden onset of double vision made it very difficult to drive. The single lane traffic became two distinct lines of cars. Luckily, my wife was with me at the time and was able to take over.”

On returning to Melton, he immediately called the team at Specsavers in Sherrard Street, at which he has been a regular patient since it opened more than 20 years ago, for a second opinion, and was referred by dispensing optician Sam Stirton straight to Leicester Royal Infirmary’s eye casualty for further analysis.

He was seen less than an hour later by an eye consultant who diagnosed him with a suspected blood clot.

Mr Humm was sent home to rest and returned to the hospital later that week for an MRI scan, blood tests and a neck ultrasound which confirmed the diagnosis as a transient ischaemic attack – or mini stroke. This is caused by a temporary disruption in the blood supply to part of the brain which results in a lack of oxygen to the brain. Often they are the precursor warning before a more major attack, but luckily in Terry’s case, this was prevented by quick diagnosis.

“I would like to thank Specsavers and Leicester Royal Infirmary for their prompt attention which resulted in a very quick turnaround from referral to treatment,” said Terry.

Specsavers Melton Mowbray store director, Marshall Bradley, said Terry’s case highlights the importance of regular eye tests. She added: “We’re so relieved that Terry’s case was treated so successfully. After a quick reaction from him to call us, through our specialist expertise we were able to identify a more major problem behind his symptoms and get him into hospital within an hour.

“In this instance, Terry didn’t experience any symptoms or discomfort leading up to the episode, and we had years of detailed patient notes to quickly identify this was out of the ordinary. Unfortunately, it is all-too- common that we think everything is healthy because we don’t have any obvious symptoms to tell us otherwise, and it’s only a routine check-up that tells the whole picture.”

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