戰勝中風 重回帥位
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????中風發生的時候大腦局部供血被阻斷或嚴重減少，使得腦組織缺乏氧氣和營養物質。幾分鐘后腦細胞開始死亡。事實上，馬宏升當時并非遭受中風而只是短暫性腦缺血（TIA），俗稱小中風，血液流動只是暫時中斷，并不會導致腦細胞死亡或者終生殘疾。但是每次小中風出現都會增加中風的風險，如果不進行防治的話就很容易變成中風。 ????馬宏升和喬治馬上驅車到當地的急救中心。“我中風了，”馬宏升對醫生說。“你不是中風，”他回憶當時醫生回答說。當時醫生將他的癥狀歸因于壓力過大，最終診斷為偏頭痛。 ????隨著周末到來，馬宏升開始感到無助。他沒法說服醫生。他也不能告訴瑪格麗特，擔心自己的病情會讓她精神崩潰。星期天下午，他感到自己身體恢復正常，可以到斯坦福大學附近的環山路Stanford Dish跑步。于是他帶上兒子一同前往，但是這40分鐘的慢跑卻差點要了他的性命。 ????4點左右，馬宏升回到家里，覺得頭痛欲裂。他告訴喬治，“感覺非常不對勁”。“我走上樓，坐到床上，”他回憶說，“中風就在那一刻發生了”。他倒在床上，看見喬治走進臥室，然后是布里吉特。布里吉特開始放聲大哭。馬宏升看著天花板，白色的天花板上布滿星星。“喬治把我挪到地板上，”他回憶說，“隨后救護車來了。之后我就失去了知覺。” ????馬宏升的中風導致身體左側頸動脈血流阻塞，而頸動脈正是大腦左半球供血的主要通道。左半球控制身體右側的活動，并且對大部分人來說，也控制著語言能力。因此馬宏升喪失了語言功能。到了深夜，他認出了瑪格麗特。但是他的預后診斷并不確定。醫生們不能確定馬宏升今后還能不能走路、說話。 ????同時，還要考慮對公司的影響。周一，瑪格麗特跟歐德寧談了談。后者表示他將咨詢法律總顧問，決定英特爾是否必須馬上公布這一消息；歐德寧說，無論如何，公司都會和她共同宣布這個消息。 ????新聞稿的措辭最終變成了一件牽動全家的大事。馬宏升年紀最大的女兒瑞秋從英格蘭坐飛機趕了回來。她和喬治以及布里吉特并不希望英特爾披露馬宏升中風的消息。“你們的爸爸不是小孩子了，”瑪格麗特責備說，“命運一直與他為敵，但他從沒掩飾過任何事情。”格羅夫曾在大屠殺中幸存并成功擊敗過癌癥，他告訴孩子們，敢于承擔是最負責任的方式。馬宏升一家決定讓當時已經不能說話的馬宏升自己決定發言稿的措辭。瑪格麗特將新聞稿的草稿放在馬宏升面前，問他選擇“中風”還是“小中風”，還是完全回避這個細節。馬宏升伸出左手無名指，指了指“中風”。 ????在斯坦福醫院的第一個星期，馬宏升的孩子們希望控制探望者的人數。但是馬宏升的看法卻不一樣。“我希望保羅從我的眼神中看到我回歸的決心，”馬宏升談到歐德寧時說。當時歐德寧和格羅夫走進病房，馬宏升回憶說他們兩人“臉色蒼白，”，“我當時想‘沒事。我還是我！’”他補充說，“我可以思考，就是不能說話。你知道這是什么感覺嗎？實在太糟糕了。” ????馬宏升想了很多辦法自娛自樂，表達自己的想法。周二，即中風后的48小時，他正在讀一本有關中國歷史的書。當時瑪格麗特拿進來一大堆書，他挑出瑟夫?康拉德的經典作品《黑暗之心》。馬宏升用手指指了其中幾段讓瑪格麗特讀出來——這些段落正反映了他當時的心情。 ????你可以想象那是怎樣的心情：沮喪、失望和焦躁。“到了周三還是周四的時候，我開始琢磨‘我怎么才能好起來’，”他回憶說。“我必須恢復到原來的樣子。”中風幾天之后，馬宏升身體右側的知覺開始恢復。他開始能勉強擠出幾個詞，其中就包括“現在”這個字眼，這也是醫護人員聽得最多的一個詞。有一次醫院對馬宏升的活動進行全面監控，結果發現他自己一個人走到醫院的另一頭去看望他的孩子凱瑟琳。隨后馬宏升轉移到舊金山一個康復機構，按計劃他應該待夠一個月。但是十天之后，他就回到了帕洛阿爾托的家中。 |
????A stroke occurs when the blood supply to part of the brain is interrupted or severely reduced, depriving brain tissue of oxygen and nutrients. Within minutes brain cells begin to die. In fact, Maloney was not having a stroke at the time but transient ischemic attacks. Commonly known as TIAs, or mini-strokes, they are temporary interruptions of blood flow that don't destroy brain cells or cause permanent disability. But each TIA increases the risk of stroke and warns that one could occur if nothing is done to prevent it. ????Maloney and George drove to a local urgent-care center. "Look, I'm having a stroke," Maloney told the doctor authoritatively. "You're not having a stroke," he recalls the doctor replying. The doctor attributed his symptoms to stress and diagnosed a migraine headache. ????As the weekend progressed, Maloney felt helpless. He couldn't convince the doctor. He couldn't tell Margaret, for fear that another medical emergency would send her over the edge. Sunday afternoon he felt normal enough to run the Stanford Dish, a hilly loop near the university. He kept up with his son that day, but the 40-minute jog did him in. ????Around 4 o'clock, Sean was home with an awful headache and feeling "really weird," he told George. "I went up and sat on my bed," he recalls, "and the stroke happened." He fell back. He saw George walk into the bedroom, and then Brigid, crying. He saw the ceiling, white and full of stars. "George laid me down on the floor," he recalls. "Then there was the ambulance. Then I don't know." ????Maloney's stroke resulted from a clot in his left carotid artery, the main supplier of blood to the brain's left hemisphere. The left hemisphere controls movement in the right side of the body and, for most people, speech as well. So Maloney couldn't talk. By midnight he recognized Margaret. But his prognosis was uncertain. The doctors didn't know whether Maloney would ever walk or talk again. ????Meanwhile, there was business to take care of. On Monday, Margaret spoke to Otellini, who said he would ask his general counsel whether Intel had to disclose the news immediately; in any case, he said, the company would work with her on the announcement. ????The art of the press release became a family affair. Oldest daughter Rachel flew in from England. She and George and Brigid didn't want Intel to disclose that their dad had had a stroke. "Your dad is not a child," Margaret chided, adding, "The odds have always been against him, and he has never sugarcoated anything." Grove, who survived the Holocaust and detailed his own cancer battle in Fortune in 1996, told the kids that being "upfront" is the responsible way to go. The family decided to let the man who could not speak decide what language to use in the release. Holding a draft in front of him, Margaret asked Sean to choose "stroke" or "minor stroke" or leave out the detail. With his left index finger, Sean pointed to "stroke." ????During his first week in Stanford Hospital, Maloney's kids wanted to keep visitors at bay. But he had a different opinion. "I wanted Paul to see in my eyes that I would be back," he says of Otellini. When the Intel chief and Grove came in looking "appropriately white," Maloney recalls, "I was thinking, 'It's okay! It's me!' " He adds, "I have no problem thinking, but I can't speak. Do you know what that's like? That's terrible." ????Maloney devised various ways to entertain and express himself. By Tuesday, 48 hours after the stroke, he was reading a book about Chinese history. When Margaret brought in a pile of books, he picked out Heart of Darkness, the Joseph Conrad classic. Maloney would point his finger at passages for her to read -- passages that reflected his emotions at the moment. ????You can imagine what those emotions were: frustration, anger, impatience. "By Wednesday or Thursday, I was thinking, 'How can I come back?' " he recalls, adding, "I had to get back." A few days after the stroke, the right side of his body came back to life. One of the first words he was able to croak out was "now," which the hospital staff started to hear -- a lot. One time the hospital issued an APB to locate Maloney. He had made his way all the way to another wing to visit baby Catherine. When he moved to a rehab facility in San Francisco, he was supposed to stay a month. Ten days later he was heading home to Palo Alto. |
