Mr B. is 58 and lives in a small town in Germany with his wife and family. An Electrical Engineer by trade, he built his own neon signs company from scratch and been running it alongside his wife for almost 20 years when suddenly, on 11 March 2009, his life took a different turn. This date will no doubt be embossed in Mr. B’s mind forever because quite out of the blue, he suffered a stroke whilst sat in his office working.

Fortunately for Mr. B, his son-in-law was in the office at the time and recognised the problem instantly. An ambulance was called and Mr. B. was rushed into an intensive stroke unit in Magdeburg, where the doctors also quickly diagnosed the stroke from his family history - his father had been similarly afflicted at the age of 71.

After a week in the stroke unit and three weeks in second hospital, he was referred to Magdeburg’s leading centre for neuro-rehabilitation, where a four-pronged therapy plan was established, spanning physiotherapy, occupational therapy, neurology and speech therapy. At a neurological level, extensive tests diagnosed Mr B. as having Attention / Concentration and Visual Field deficits.

Mr. B. spent five months at this specialist neuro-rehabilitation centre - two months as an almost full-time in-patient followed by three months part-time in the day clinic. A tailored neurological rehabilitation programme included thirty minutes a day up to four times a week working with Magdeburg software company Hasomed’s pioneering software programme RehaCom. Medically proven and used in neuro-rehabilitation centres across the globe, RehaCom was considered perfect to re-train Mr. B’s neurological weak points. Mr. B explains:

“With RehaCom I feel like all the damaged connectors between the cells in the affected area of my brain are starting to join up again”

Five months later Mr. B was ready to go home, but he knew he would be using RehaCom for many months to come:

“For me it’s like physical exercise – you have to do it regularly or you become unfit. It’s the same with the brain, and more so once you have had a stroke. Use it or lose it, as they say.”

The whole RehaCom experience has been an emotional journey for Mr. B:

“At first I was depressed when I started working with RehaCom - I couldn’t complete even the lower levels of difficulty. But then I started flying through the difficulty levels I became more and more enthusiastic and ambitious. And with hindsight, the depression at the start was simply a natural consequence of RehaCom forcing me to recognise my limits”

Mr. B now trains regularly at home with RehaCom. Every fourteen days he receives a new personalised therapy plan from his therapist based on his progress over the previous fortnight. His concentration and attention have improved dramatically, and he can now watch TV and read books for much longer time spans than before.

When asked if Mr. B would recommend RehaCom to others in a similar situation he enthused:

“Absolutely! Without question. I have tried several brain training products and nowhere else will you find one with such advanced capability yet at the same time customisable to an individual’s particular weaknesses”

Of course the past year or so has been tough for both Mr. B and his wife, but thanks to RehaCom and the part it has played in his overall rehabilitation programme, life is starting afresh for both of them.