Meet HSNS Client: Ferne Mardlin-Smith 

Before 2017, Ferne Mardlin-Smith spent her professional career informing, developing and advancing health practices at the IWK Health Centre and the Department of Health and Wellness in Nova Scotia. Additionally, she taught Business English and Information Management at Nova Scotia Community College and was an active volunteer in her community. However, in August 2017, everything in her life changed when she suffered a severe stroke that took away her ability to express herself through speech.

Initially, it wasn’t clear to her doctors how much damage the stroke would do, or if she would survive. When the brain bleed stopped, it became clear Ferne suffered from severe Aphasia — she would need to re-learn how to speak, essentially from scratch. Ferne began to work with a Speech-Language Pathologist (SLP) through HSNS, while she was an inpatient at the Nova Scotia Rehabilitation and Arthritis Centre and continued her work with a SLP when discharged from the hospital.

“It was hard work,” Ferne said of her early days in therapy. “First of all, I had to learn patience. But I persevered.”

In the years since her stroke, Ferne has made immense progress with the help of her therapists, her husband Donald and her friends. She has needed to re-train her ears to hear the difference between sounds, so she can be self-sufficient in correcting her own speech errors. Although she still stumbles in her speech, she says she now feels more comfortable meeting and talking with people, even in group settings.

Both Ferne and Donald credit much of her recovery to the dedicated speech therapists who have worked with her. “The therapists are great working with her,” Donald said. “They enjoy working with Ferne because she’s a very determined person; she never gives up.”

“Working with speech therapy helped me to believe in myself,” Ferne said. “The therapist looked at me as a whole person. I was involved in all the decision making.”

With slow but steady progress, Ferne reached the point in her recovery where traditional speech therapy no longer offered her the challenge she needed and wanted. Her SLP encouraged her to connect with Partners in Care. She joined Partners in Care in March 2020, only a week before COVID-19 was declared a pandemic in North America.

Now, Ferne offers some of her time giving back to HSNS and her community. She has been helping HSNS assess their materials through the eyes of a client. She has recommended improvements to materials like their website and educational handouts.

“I want to support Aphasia-friendly material and literacy for all Nova Scotians,” Ferne said. “I want to help others because you gave me my voice.”

Ferne’s improvements since her terrible stroke could be seen by some as improbable, or even miraculous. But according to Donald, those who know Ferne well are not surprised by her determined progress and recovery, because she is a fighter.