ROOM R01W, Ariz. -- The Super Bowl is being played just up the road in Glendale. But here on the second floor of St. Joseph's Hospital neuro-rehabilitation center, where stroke victims try to win back their lives, it is a world away from the New England Patriots' drive for 19-0.
Or is it?
His name is Tim Lange, and he is a 47-year-old electrical engineer from this area. He is an active man, a mountain biker and hiker, but a persistent and severe headache sent him to the emergency room Christmas Eve.
Now he's here, in a hospital room with signs reminding him to take small bites and sips, because swallowing is a problem. He does therapy so he can shower himself again. He does simple math problems to try to regain his memory. He talks slowly of the need for his brain to "rewire itself."
And he has been doing some reading about a football player who has come to mean something to him.
Tedy Bruschi.
One of the more compelling plotlines of Super Bowl XLII has been Bruschi's return from a stroke three years ago. It has been retold this week in the glare of bright lights -- how a Pro Bowl linebacker went from victim to role model.
"It's something I take very seriously," Bruschi said the other day. "There's a lot of things you can say after my name. The one I am most proud of is a stroke survivor."
A nice sound bite for the 11 o'clock report. But here on the second floor, where the wheelchairs come and go and the get-well cards fill the walls, it means a little something more real.
Lange is a casual football fan and in truth did not know that much about Bruschi until this week. But the more he hears, the more he seems to want to know.
"It's encouraging for him to be able to come back and play at that level," he said. "One thing I don't know is if it's apples and oranges. I don't know what difficulties and paralysis he had to overcome to get back to where he is."
So details were filled in Thursday, as Lange sat in his chair, and he seemed to focus more on Bruschi with each item. How Bruschi was struck down unexpectedly at a young age and during an active career. How one obstacle he had to overcome was vision. How his handwriting was affected.
It sounded familiar to the man in the chair. I suspect we were seeing something repeated thousands of times in other hospital rooms, when stroke victims hear the goods on Tedy Bruschi. He's just like they are.
"If he wanted to stop in and tell his story, I think it would be a big motivating factor for a lot of people here," Lange said. "They could hear a description of his challenges. 'My handwriting sucked. I was struggling with vision.'"
Lange have those problems, too?
"My handwriting sucked beforehand."
So the final word on Bruschi in Room R01W?
"An inspiration."
They believe that in the hospitals back in Boston, too. Kevin Alvares knows because he was a physical therapist there for five years, until coming to St. Joseph's this very week.
He has been there when cheers rolled through the ward after the Patriots scored a touchdown. He has seen Bruschi's picture on the hospital room walls. He has heard his patients during Monday therapy relive the moments of the day before -- the Patriots in general, Bruschi's in particular.
"Tedy Bruschi is loved in New England," Alvares said. "He was very open in talking about his condition. That goes a long way with helping people's recovery.
"I think he probably appreciates how hard he worked to get through the event. I'm sure he would feel the training and therapy were in some ways just as intense as the training he puts in in practice. Not everybody has that same degree of recovery. You look at yourself and your life and you appreciate what you've achieved and how far you've come and where you want to go from here."
Tim Lange is in that process now, not 2 miles from NFL headquarters this week.
"It's been a shock to myself and my family, and it's still uphill," he said Thursday. "But I'm going to walk out of here eventually."
Sunday, he is watching the Super Bowl.
Mike Lopresti also writes for Gannett News Service
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