I had many long and emotional conversations with the family later that day. This involved floods of tears and much embracing. It is difficult to explain, let alone to understand, what it must be like to have no language – to be unable either to understand what is said to one, or put one’s thoughts into words. After major strokes people can die from brain swelling, but this patient remained unchanged for forty-eight hours, and the next evening I assured the family that he would not die, although I did not know if he would regain his speech, and rather doubted it.
