For five decades, Dr. Bobby Dale of Tupelo dedicated his life to caring for others. He treated thousands of patients, many of them suffering from stroke. He knows the signs well, yet he was in denial when it happened to him.

The First Signs of Stroke

On Easter 2020, Dr. Dale and his wife Martha turned off the TV and headed to bed. 

"Are you okay?" Martha asked.

“I told her I was fine and asked why,” he says. “She told me that my speech was slurred and my face was drooped.” 

When he had trouble getting in bed, Martha called their neighbor, family physician Dr. Ben Kilman, to come over. Because Dr. Dale was being stubborn and insisting he was fine, Dr. Kilman called in another neighbor, surgeon Dr. Newt Harrison for reinforcement—and the two got him to the Emergency Department at North Mississippi Medical Center-Tupelo.

With stroke, time is brain. The longer treatment is delayed, the more brain function is lost.

“The Good Lord showed his hand,” Dr. Dale says. “We had stayed up late to watch a special on TV. Had we been asleep when I had the stroke, we wouldn’t have known until the next day, and it would’ve been too late to do anything.”

Fighting the Clock to Restore Blood Flow

A board-certified emergency medicine physician, Dr. Dale served as medical director of NMMC's Emergency Department for many years. But that night, he was dependent on the expertise of others. Doctors quickly determined that he had indeed suffered an ischemic stroke. A blood clot was blocking a major artery to his brain. 

His former colleague, interventional radiologist Dr. Richard Arriola, immediately performed thrombectomy, a procedure to remove the blood clot and restore blood flow to Dr. Dale’s brain. “Dr. Arriola called me and said he had worked so hard to get that clot out, but he wasn’t able to get it. He was going to keep trying,” Martha recalls. “About 4:30 a.m., he came out and told me he was successful.”

“I call it a miracle,” Dr. Dale says. "There's basically a six-hour window to restore circulation with the hope of recovering brain function. He worked for four or five hours on me.”

Relearning Speech & Movement

After the procedure, Dr. Dale spent several days in the Critical Care Unit under the care of neurosurgeon Dr. Jason Stacy. “My speech was terrible,” he says. “I knew what I was trying to say, but I couldn’t say it. I could not move my left side. I finally got some movement back in my left arm and foot almost a week later. I thought then, well, there might be some chance of recovery.”

A week after his stroke, Dr. Dale transferred by wheelchair to NMMC’s Rehabilitation Institute for several hours of intense physical, occupational and speech therapy daily overseen by physical medicine and rehabilitation physician Dr. Brian Condit. 

“On the weekend they told me I could have the day off from therapy,” he says. “I told them, ‘I’ve got to get well. I’m not taking any time off.’” 

For three weeks, therapists worked with him every day, retraining his muscles, rebuilding his strength and endurance, and perfecting his speech. “I got the best treatment there. I couldn’t have gotten any better treatment anywhere,” he says. “I walked out of there under my own power a month after my stroke.”

After two weeks of home health therapy, Dr. Dale began several months of outpatient rehabilitation. Three months later, he passed his driving evaluation at NMMC’s Outpatient Rehabilitation Center and hit the road again. 

He returned to working three days a week at a local clinic before fully retiring in 2023 after 50 years of practicing medicine. He continues to do volunteer work and mentor nurse practitioners.

A Full Life Restored

Today, five years later, Dr. Dale estimates he has recovered about 95%.

"I have limited fine motor dexterity in my left hand and can't fret guitar chords like I used to," he says. "I often hit the wrong key when typing, and I occasionally trip over multisyllable words. 

But life, he says, is great and a blessing. "I can hunt and fish, drive on long trips and mow my yard with a push mower," he says. "I can walk three to five miles a day, work out two to three days a week, and I have regained the ability to swim."

Despite the setback, Dr. Dale counts his blessings. "I was very fortunate. Martha picked up on it right away, and my neighbors got me to the right care," he says. "I can't say enough about the team at NMMC. Because of their great care, I'm able to have my life back."