Former Valley resident reflects on rehabilitation journey in new memoir
Courtesy Vanessa Abraham
Speech pathologist Vanessa Abraham is spreading awareness about post-intensive care syndrome through her new memoir.
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It helps me (with) the advocacy work and educating people so the next person that comes to the ICU doesn’t have to live feeling so isolated and scared.”
Vanessa Abraham, a former Scottsdale resident, received a life-changing diagnosis in 2019 that left her paralyzed and unable to speak. Now she’s hoping to raise awareness about her experience in Arizona and beyond.
Abraham, a speech pathologist, graduated from Northern Arizona University in 2013, having studied in the communication sciences and disorders program. She and her family ended up leaving the state in 2015, but she spent nine years living in the north Valley.
Four years after her move, Abraham was diagnosed with the Pharyngeal-Cervical-Brachial variant of Guillain-Barré Syndrome, a rare condition that can result in weakness, numbness or paralysis.
She experienced paralysis and was unable to eat food or speak after her diagnosis, which was frustrating not only as a working speech pathologist but also as a parent who wants to be the best support for her child.
“I want her to have a mom that can walk with her and eat a meal with her and talk with her and push her on a swing, and all those things that I wanted to do with my child from the moment she was born,” Abraham said.
This desire to show up for her child is what Abraham said has been a source of strength for her in pushing through her recovery, eventually regaining her abilities to speak, eat and move around.
After falling ill in 2019, Abraham said she took a year off from her work before coming back to her job as a speech pathologist, but since then, she’s been on a “massive rehabilitation journey,” navigating through mental health issues and post-intensive care syndrome, or PICS.
Abraham’s path to recovery has been long and draining, not only from the four months to receive her diagnosis but from the experience she had as an intensive care unit patient. Her stay in the ICU lasted a month, but the amount of stress, uncertainty and fear she felt dealing with her condition has had a lasting effect.
Repeated exposure to triggers from her hospital stay have a negative impact on Abraham and others suffering with PICS, contributing to a lower quality of mental health and inability to go through their day-to-day lives.
Vanessa Abraham was hospitalized in 2019 for the Pharyngeal-Cervical-Brachial variant of Guillain-Barré Syndrome.
Courtesy Vanessa Abraham
Abraham’s new book “Speechless” heavily covers her experience with PICS and how it’s an important part of understanding patient trauma beyond the initial agony patients face with their diagnosis.
For example, she explained certain noises or triggers can transport a former ICU patient back to the hospital, bringing to light the traumatic feelings from that time and further hindering a patient from moving forward.
“I’m really trying to talk heavily about that in the world, and get graduate programs — such as NAU, (University of Arizona), (Arizona State University), you name it — to talk to their graduates about this,” Abraham said.
In her experience, she said that at large, “trauma-informed” therapists and other health care workers are unaware of PICS, and she hopes that her work can inspire more conversations about the syndrome to better support patients.
She says that she’s working hard to have PICS be included within education for health care workers, especially with the lack of treatments or support available to patients.
While she still faces challenges in managing her PICS, Abraham says her memoir and talking about the experience has been helping her heal.
“It helps me (with) the advocacy work and educating people so the next person that comes to the ICU doesn’t have to live feeling so isolated and scared,” Abraham said.
Please send your comments to AzOpinions@iniusa.org. We are committed to publishing a wide variety of reader opinions, as long as they meet our Civility Guidelines. Reporter Caroline Yu can be reached at cyu@iniusa.org.
Meet Caroline Caroline Yu joined Independent Newsmedia, Inc., USA, in 2020 as a summer intern covering Scottsdale. As an intern, she continued her coverage of Scottsdale, Paradise Valley and Tempe. After graduating in 2022, Caroline became a full-time reporter for Scottsdale and Paradise Valley. She is currently reporting for the Tempe market.
Community: She is a supporter of the environment and tries to get involved with related community events.
Education: Arizona State University with a BA in Journalism and Mass Communications, with a minor in French.
Random Fact: She used to be a ballet dancer for 10 years.
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