• 🇺🇸 Kindle Available July 4th

• Print Editions Paperback | Hardcover September 28th

• Audiobook (December)-Bonus Audio Chapters Live Now on Substack!

Introduction

by the Author of the Amazon Best Seller Body in Balance

David Dansereau, MSPT,CAPS

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Every 40 seconds in the United States, a life is thrown completely out of balance by a stroke. I know this terrifying feeling intimately, because it has happened to me—not just once, but twice (and perhaps even a third time, but you’ll have to read the book).

My journey with stroke began long before I had the clinical vocabulary to understand it. At just 17 years old, while running a fast-moving power-play drill on the ice, I crashed into the hockey boards and temporarily lost all feeling and movement on the left side of my body. My coaches dismissed it as a “pinched nerve,” and because I was a young athlete desperate to keep playing, I ignored it too. It wasn’t until much later that I realized I had experienced a Transient Ischemic Attack (TIA)—a massive, missed warning sign.

Fast forward to the fall of 2006. At 39 years old, I was working full-time as a physical therapist, managing my own business, married and busy raising three young children under the age of seven. I woke up one morning with a blistering, tsunami-like headache. My left leg went numb, my foot began dragging, and as I reached for the milk in the kitchen, my hand simply dropped it.

In an instant, I went from being a healthcare provider to a patient trapped in the very system I worked in. Before that morning, walking was something I never consciously thought about; suddenly, I had to use a metronome in my head just to sequence my gait, terrified of falling while pushing my young kids in their stroller. I was thrust into a frightening “grey area” of care. Discharged with no clear plan to fix my heart defect, debilitating headaches and brain fog, impaired gait and balance, no recovery roadmap or exercise guidelines, struggling to balance my family, my business, my finances, and my own mental health and rehabilitation. I had hit rock bottom.

My unique lived experience as a young survivor and a father, combined with my professional background as a Licensed Physical Therapist and nutritionist, opened my eyes to a devastating reality: our current healthcare system is fundamentally broken when it comes to long-term stroke care. Traditional rehabilitation is treated as a temporary clinical episode. Survivors are typically given a few weeks or months of therapy before insurance mandates run out and they are told they have reached a “plateau”.

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In 2026, we are STILL sending patients home with missing ingredients and forgotten recipes, leaving them to fall into a black hole of despair or off the dreaded ‘rehab cliff’ upon discharge.

The magnitude of this problem is escalating. Globally, strokes in adults under 50 have increased by 40-70% in recent decades. Yet, the resources to support this growing demographic of young survivors are dangerously anemic. Through my advocacy work as a patient stakeholder in research with volunteer organizations like PCORI, Tufts Medical Center, Mass General Hospital, the SAYA Consortium (Stroke and Young Adult), the FDA, the American Heart and Stroke Association, Tedy’s Team and Abbott HeartMates—as well as co-founding the PFO Research Foundation, EnableUs and the Know Stroke Podcast—I have fought to ensure the patient voice is no longer ignored.

This need is not currently being met by the American Heart and Stroke Association (AHA/ASA) and a sustainable funding plan and new national support structure for uniting the survivor community is needed and overdue.

It is time to rethink stroke care. We need to move beyond simply talking about change and actually offer survivors and stroke support organizations agency and a playbook to break down care silos and scale coordinated grassroots service efforts.

To truly fix this broken system, this playbook focuses on treating the entire continuum of care, starting upstream with primary prevention. The reality is that roughly 80% of all strokes are preventable. Yet, we completely fail to provide early education and fund support in our school systems. When I had my stroke, I was deeply frustrated by the lack of resources available to teach my own kids about what was happening to their dad in a non-threatening, age-appropriate way. That is why I launched the Bright Minds initiative. By bringing stroke awareness directly into schools, we can equip the next generation with the knowledge to recognize warning signs and understand brain and body health long before a crisis occurs.

And can we talk about nutrition and how we can directly and immediately improve recovery and long term brain resilience? I ask, why some almost 20 years after my stroke are we still sending stroke survivors home without a plan on how to complement their physical recovery beginning with their forks. How we are fueling our brains and bodies to heal and recover between therapy sessions is still not on many discharge planning menus for stroke. This is as an essential health pillar as water is to life that needs to be introduced for lasting secondary prevention beyond the latest wonder pill breakthrough. I’ve proven in my own practice and group courses, time and again, proper fuel can help survivors achieve balance.

That is why I have built the principles of my Achieve Balance course directly into this playbook. I want to give you a clear roadmap to take charge of your health starting with ‘your why’, then by balancing “Energy In” with “Energy Out” and actively managing vital biometrics like your rest and recovery, blood pressure, blood sugar, lipid levels and through functional mobility scores to really know stroke risks and when your body’s check engine light is on. You can’t manage what you aren’t measuring and we simply aren’t moving the needle fast enough in this area of empowering behavior change with biometric data despite all the technology being readily affordable.

Beyond behavior change, Closure After Stroke outlines my proposed blueprint for the future of physical rehabilitation: a technology-enabled, home-based care model. By utilizing wearable technology, advanced digital therapeutics like rhythmic auditory stimulation (music as medicine) and other evidence based emerging technologies paired with remote monitoring, we can safely bring rehabilitation into the living room and truly give the stroke survivor a home field advantage.

This home-first ecosystem dismantles the myth of the recovery plateau, allowing survivors to achieve the volume of meaningful repetitions required to truly rewire the brain long after clinic doors close.

But beyond handing off a clinical playbook, there is a deeper, much more urgent reason why I had to write this book now. It is a reality that forces you to step back and think about what truly matters in this life: the profound impact of stroke on our long-term brain health and cognition. The unspoken truth is that every survivor lives with a ticking “brain clock”. This clock not only puts us at a higher risk of secondary events after our first stroke, but it also means we face a significantly higher risk of cognitive deficits as we age—including developing dementia and Alzheimer’s at rates far above the general population.

First, I write to pay tribute to my own father, who lost his life to a brain bleed while fiercely fighting cancer. He left me with a foundational legacy that became my anchor: to always Keep the Faith, believe in mankind and treat people well. I pulled immense strength from his memory during the darkest days of my own rehabilitation, and his spirit lives on in this work. I also present this work to honor my three children—who were all under the age of seven when my stroke turned our world upside down. They also never met their grandfather, so through sharing my memories and lessons and my own father’s words in my writing I can pass along and honor his life.

This book is also to share the stories of the incredible community of stroke survivors, care partners, and support organizations who I am grateful for and support their hard work. I will spotlight their efforts and founder stories, as they have graciously shared their missions with me for this book. Many have also been guests on our podcast. You’ll also be meeting many stroke survivors and hear their inspiring words along with their why, their lessons learned and the recipes and songs that shaped their recoveries as well. The impeccable timing in which I met each one of them in various stages of my healing journey is remarkable.

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Recovery is a lifelong marathon, not a sprint. My goal with this book is to transform you from a passive recipient of a broken medical system into discovering the ingredients and strength within to take charge and become the active “master chef” of your own recovery recipe. No matter where you are on your readiness staircase or climb towards your desired recovery goals, it is my hope that this playbook empowers you to to start or perhaps resume your climb to believe in your health again, maintain your momentum, and realize your ultimate potential.

I BELIEVE in YOU and I can’t wait to hear your story!

Until we connect in person, stay well, keep the faith and keep moving forward!

Cheers,

David Dansereau, MSPT,CAPS

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Be sure to follow along on the book launch and virtual book tour all month long heading into release day 🇺🇸(July 4th) on Substack by subscribing below:

If you would like to get on my advanced reader copy list please restack this post and message me below and I’ll send you these details. Thank you!

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🐾 Grateful Mentions:

💪Jenna’s Episode 70

⌚️Rory’s Update:

💙My Abbott HeartMates Draft Night

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📙 Preorder Details Coming This Week!

In this video I mention ‘why’ this day is important to me. I also explain why choices I made about my health some 19 years ago began a ripple effect which have led to finding closure through the writing of my book which officially pre-launches today!

Mentions

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Great Episode About The Power of Choice

Power Play- Chapter One Book Preview

🚀 Follow the Launch!

From the first time I met Jamie as a 12 year old pediatric stroke survivor struggling to maintain hope, right up until present day when we met up for a coffee, I’ve always been so impressed how Jamie handles her ‘mental game’ with such maturity. -David Dansereau

Background: I’ll be sharing her full story in my book but I wanted to give you a sneak peek here on how Jamie maintains hope and overcomes obstacles in survivorship. The following is an excerpt from my book with some of the tips she shared with me over the years during our book interviews, during the time we spent working together in pediatric stroke advocacy and in the early days helping her with her rehabilitation.

Jamie’s songs that resonate with her in reflecting on her journey:

• 🎶 Miley Cyrus- ‘The Climb’

• 🎼 Jonas Brothers- ‘A Little Bit Longer’

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Before we dive in, did you know you can listen to this article on the Substack app?

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🏒Now, let’s meet Jamie

The Nightmare on the Ice and How we Connected

For Jamie Coyle, “luck” was the defining rhythm of her childhood growing up in my hometown of Cumberland, Rhode Island. She was the rising hockey star who started skating at age 3, with the golden touch—’the girl who won virtually every raffle she entered’ and scored game-winning goals just as the buzzer sounded. By age 12, Jamie was a top-tier athlete wearing the #7 jersey, her eyes fixed on the Olympic stage. She would often tell me she felt invincible on the ice, as if she could sense the puck’s path to the net before it even left her stick.

That charmed trajectory met a bone-chilling end on August 9, 2008. During a tournament in Marlborough, Massachusetts, after scoring two goals, Jamie was struck by a massive headache. Her voice began to vanish. When she tried to take her turn on the ice, her body betrayed her and she collapsed. In an instant, the “luckiest girl in the world” was facing a life-threatening medical crisis: a pediatric stroke.

Jamie’s journey, chronicled in her book The Luckiest Girl in the World, is more than a survival story. It is a masterclass in resilience and a call to action for better health education and stroke awareness in communities and in the schools. Here’s the testimonial I left on Amazon for this important book.

The Luckiest Girl in the World is a Winner

Recovery from stroke is a lifelong journey full of many ups and downs. Any survivor or caregiver will tell you that, and too often many simply stay down and accept a life that has changed. Instead, The Luckiest Girl in the World shows any survivor or person facing obstacles how to take on a challenge and come out a winner. Jamie provides a very mature and hopeful account of her stroke recovery, and guides the reader through both the physical and emotional stages (of stroke recovery) which even many adult survivors have trouble discussing. Her book and all the valuable lessons it includes should become a “must read” for all students to improve stroke education in the schools and foster better communication and understanding about brain injuries.- David Dansereau | SmartMovesPT

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Sidebar: When I first heard of Jamie’s story, I admit I was brought right back to the ice when I was 17 and had my own health scare, a TIA, that was missed by a coach that did not know the stroke warning signs. I released this chapter, Power Play from my book earlier here on Substack.

You’ll be meeting Jamie and learning more soon on my deep dive in my Closure book, but here are five impactful lessons from her recovery I want to share with you now!

Takeaway 1: Stroke is Not a Disease of “Old Age”

The most dangerous myth about stroke is that it is reserved for the elderly. Jamie’s experience shattered this misconception, highlighting the reality that pediatric stroke occurs at alarming rates, and young women are at a significant, often overlooked risk.

Public perception is frequently misaligned with clinical reality. While national awareness efforts often focus on other high-profile illnesses, the mortality statistics for women and strokes are staggering.

“Perhaps you didn’t know—Stroke KILLS more than twice as many American women each and every year as breast cancer.” — David Dansereau, MSPT

This “surprising” fact exists because the young faces of stroke rarely receive the same national support or corporate partnerships as other health missions.

Did you know? Jamie’s story inspired some of my early Bright Minds advocacy work which aimed to ensure that medical professionals and the public alike stop using youth as a shield against a diagnosis.

Takeaway 2: The Danger of the “Recognition Gap”

Because no one suspects a stroke in a 12-year-old, a “recognition gap” often occurs, leading to catastrophic delays in treatment.

Jamie’s symptoms were textbook:

A sudden, severe headache, loss of speech, and physical collapse.

Yet, because of her age, the reality was the furthest thing from the observers’ minds.

These initial delays nearly cost Jamie her life. Her story underscores a grim reality: only 1 in 6 people can name the three most common warning signs of a stroke. Early education in schools is paramount, not just for symptom recognition, but for survival.

If coaches, teachers, and students are trained to spot the signs, we can close the window on misdiagnosis and give children a fighting chance at a full recovery. Much, much more on this in my book!

Takeaway 3: Recovery is an Athlete’s Game

Jamie’s greatest asset in rehabilitation was her “Athlete’s Mindset.” She treated her recovery with the same grit she used to dominate the ice. This connection to the sports world was solidified when I was able to introduce her to my own stroke mentor NFL legend and fellow stroke survivor Tedy Bruschi.

Bruschi, who also suffered a stroke due to a PFO, recognized a kindred spirit in Jamie when they met at the finish line in Boston (spoiler alert, you’ll have to buy Jamie’s book or preorder my book for details but I will share below part of what Jamie had to say in her book dedication about both Tedy Bruschi and I being her stroke heroes.

By the way, if you are wondering Tedy tells me his comeback song is:

• 🎶 Phil Collins- ‘Take Me Home’

You’ll be hearing more about stroke survivor Tedy Bruschi in my book chapter on ‘Finding Your Team’.

The bond between survivors and advocates is simply incredible. I would ultimately run the Boston Marathon with Jamie’s #7 jersey number on my shirt, and gifted her my finisher’s medal. I really feel sharing this “team” approach and community with Jamie early in her recovery and with my connection with Tedy’s Team allowed Jamie to pivot her competitive drive.

While she could no longer play hockey at an Olympic level, with lots of hard work and a ‘Never Give Up’ athletes mindset, we eventually got Jamie back on the ice again as a team effort. She explains this process so well in her book and she even began paying it forward and teaching skating and hockey skills to students with autism.

I also don’t think all these connections happen by chance, I BELIEVE there is a higher power lifting stroke survivors up and connecting us when we need it most.

-David Dansereau

Here’s just one example from Jamie’s book in her own words ( beginning on page 73 ) explaining how we first met.

“David Dansereau is a physical therapist and nutritionist who read about what happened to me in a local newspaper shortly after my stroke. By chance, he also had a story in the same paper that week and it happened to be about his involvement with New England patriot Tedy Bruschi and the football player’s own stroke awareness and advocacy organization, Tedy’s Team. David’s story was on page 7 (my hockey number), but when he picked up the paper he saw a picture of me on the front page with the headline, ‘Young Hockey Player Suffers Stroke’. He immediately contacted my coach, who had submitted the story, then rushed over to the hospital. He brought an autographed copy of Tedy Bruschi’s book, Never Give Up, My Stroke My Recovery and Return to the NFL with him and gave it to me. David sat and talked with me and my family for a long time. David and I immediately hit it off and developed a special bond. He happened to be a former hockey player himself, as well as a two time stroke survivor, his first coming at 17. Incredibly, he was also playing hockey when he suffered a stroke and collapsed on the ice.”- from the Luckiest Girl in the World book

Takeaway 4: The “Invisible” Battles (PTSD & Mental Health)

While a limp or a weak right side are visible markers of injury, the “invisible” wounds—PTSD, anxiety, and depression—are often the heaviest to carry. Returning to high school was a unique agony for Jamie. Because she didn’t “look” sick, she faced severe bullying and “evil” comments from peers who didn’t understand her invisible struggle.

The pressure to “look normal” and the trauma of the event led to severe PTSD. Jamie’s core advice for navigating this emotional minefield is a mantra for all survivors: “Never compare.”

Comparing your current self to your pre-stroke self, or your progress to someone else’s, is a trap. Advocacy in schools is essential to prevent this type of bullying and to foster an environment where mental health is treated with the same urgency as physical therapy.

Takeaway 5: Defying the “Plateau” with the Gym as Medicine

In the clinical world, patients are often told they have reached a “plateau”—a point where progress supposedly stops. Both Jamie and I vehemently reject this term, viewing it as a systemic hurdle used by insurance companies to justify discharging patients.

We believe recovery is lifelong and that movement is the ultimate prescription. For Jamie, the gym became her sanctuary and her pharmacy. Consistent physical activity remains today the best defense against both the physical weakness of her right side and the creeping shadows of depression.

“Just go [to the gym] even when you don’t feel like it just go because it will pay off... It’s the best medicine.” — Jamie Coyle

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Redefining the “Luckiest Girl” and what I hope you’ll learn from Jamie

Jamie Coyle’s mission has evolved from surviving a nightmare like we all face as stroke survivors, to lead by example on how you can manage your own mental game in recovery.

Today, as a successful young adult, you’ll hear more when I update her story in my book. She is pursuing her own career and managing her life with the mantra “Stroke Survivors Never Quit” and serving as an inspiring example for others, and hopefully providing a lifeline for survivors to share their stories too.

The title of her book, The Luckiest Girl in the World, is a profound paradox but so fitting when you get to know Jamie. She didn’t find luck in escaping tragedy, but in the higher purpose the tragedy revealed.

By losing her Olympic dream, she found a voice that I believe now saves lives and heals spirits.

My Bottom Line and Final Ponder Point:

If a 12-year-old athlete can be struck down by a stroke, are you prepared to be the advocate who recognizes the signs, or will you fall victim to the “recognition gap”?

Education is the first step toward resilience.

It’s why I am sharing Jamie’s story today here, and in my book to go to print soon, along with other inspiring stroke survivors I’ve met on my journey to closure after stroke.

I hope this helps you take charge of your own narrative and mindset.

Please comment and share below if it helped you.

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Mine Starts on the Ice

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1st Period- This preview audio covers:

• The Stroke Warning Signs, a TIA (transient ischemic attack) and My Lasting Imprint on the Ice

• How Not Knowing The Signs Led to Another Stroke Later in Life

• EBuilding a Game Plan to Know Stroke in Chapter Two

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  Enjoy this free audio preview and please chime in with your feedback!

  Closure After Stroke preorders begin May 1st 2026

• Keep reading below for another book preview chapter and meet one of the stroke survivor stories I’ll be featuring, beginning with 'The Luckiest Girl in the World’.

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I’ve been ‘connecting the final dots’ on many of the topics I want to cover in my latest book, Closure After Stroke. Honestly, I tried to write this book about 5 years ago, then the pandemic hit and then life started throwing us lots of curveballs in our family.

So it’s beyond time I bring closure to my stroke and along with it I hope to help provide a roadmap for others in their recovery. As I mention in this video, there is no one ‘recipe’ in recovery, but there are many ingredients I feel many survivors are still missing and I wish to share what I know as both a stroke survivor, degreed nutritionist and physical therapist.

‘If you’ve seen one stroke, you’ve seen one stroke.’

Many of my ‘lessons learned‘ in my recovery will be highlighted in the pages of my new book. I messed up the recipes many times and that’s why I have so much to share to help you perhaps become that ‘master chef’ in your own recovery.

The good news is I have lots of notes to work with, or ‘recipe cards’, and I’m still working through which ones to keep for the final playbook handoff.

I kept a journal via my blog for the last 18 years of my recovery so it’s been a blessing and a curse in many ways because I have so much material I want to condense and update for this new book.

How do we know who will thrive and make that meal to remember?

'“It comes from trial and error. When you get discharged, often you forget the recipes.

Or maybe you left with only a few of the ingredients and still need help to get cooking.

That’s why I am writing my book on stroke recovery.

I feel like I have a recipe or two to share.”

Stay tuned! - David Dansereau, MSPT Closure After Stroke

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Bottom Line

Beyond everything else, this book is meant to thank all those that have been part of my recovery journey. My family, my stroke hero (my wife Lisa), and everyone I worked with along the way during my recovery, throughout when I returned to my private practice, and later in my stroke advocacy work and podcast.

Thank you all for sharing and caring!

In the Video

Here’s what you’ll learn:

• Short About Me and My Family

• The Stroke Numbers and What Bothers Me The Most About Stroke

• The Type of Stroke I Had an What Causes It

• Knowing Stroke and Why We Need to Do Better than BEFAST

• My Heart Surgery, Recovery and Advocacy Journey

• My Rehab Goals and Home Recipe

• Importance of Team

• Achieving Balance and My Plan of Care

• Passing The Torch- Bright Minds, Enable.Us and Know Stroke Podcast

• Bringing Closure After Stroke with this upcoming book

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Video Mentions and Resources:

Bright Minds Kids Campaigns

Closure After Stroke Book

PFO and Stroke Risk

My FDA Patient Testimony-RESPECT for Stroke

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