Rick

I joined the Sumit’s family on August 5, 2017.  I have always tried to maintain a healthy lifestyle, exercising regularly and generally trying to eat a healthy diet.  I enjoyed running, cycling and snowboarding, but didn’t really feel that I had the ‘yoga mentality’ since I typically enjoyed more active sports.  On February 23, 2002, late on a Saturday night while working as a Postdoc at the Gencenter at the University of Munich, I was found unconscious in the men’s restroom. I was rushed across the parking lot to the Klinikum Grosshadern, one of the top hospitals in Munich, Germany.  The ER doctors recognized that there was a lot of pressure on my brain and suspected an aneurysm.  On the following day, an angiogram confirmed that I had suffered a massive subarachnoid aneurysm of the Anterior Communicating Artery aneurysm which was repaired via a coiling procedure.While my aneurysm was repaired, I was far from out of the woods. To protect my brain from vasospasms, I underwent intensive therapy known as “Triple-H” therapy, a combination of induced hypertension, hypervolemia and hemodilution, which although protected my brain, resulted in a rupture of my intestine and a peripheral neuropathy.  Once the risk of vasospasms had subsided, I was removed from the ventilator, and was transferred to a comprehensive Neurologic Rehabilitation Hospital in Bad Aibling, Germany, where I underwent speech, physical and occupational therapy and neuropsychological training.  I remained in inpatient rehabilitation for several months, and continued with physical therapy for many years following my aneurysm, but still had many balance and flexibility issues.  When I first started at Sumit’s, I was unable to get up and down from the floor without assistance and the use of walls.  I have traveled a long way from that first yoga class.  Since that first class, I am now able to get up and down from the floor without assistance, I’m able to drive without the use of hand controls, no longer require assistive devices for daily activities and have increased both my flexibility and mobility.  I am inspired by all of the students and instructors at Sumit’s and look forward to continuing my yoga journey for the remainder of my life.