DeWitt County woman invents showerhead for stroke patients

Health Reporter

Last May, DeWitt County resident Tracy Schultz-Roby, 54, had her life turned upside down after experiencing a stroke while getting ready for work.

In her recovery, she experienced the struggles that many stroke victims go through, such as being unable to wash themselves and the isolation as they go through inpatient rehabilitation. With that, she is seeking to make other stroke victims’ experiences better through the invention of a specialty showerhead and is looking to start her own stroke patient nonprofit and recovery center.

It was 7:30 a.m. May 25, 2022, when Schultz-Roby was getting ready for work as the assistant to her husband, Alan Roby, 66, who was an oil field operator.

"I said I don't feel good, and he sat down with me, and he looks at me and goes ‘Stick your tongue out,’" Schultz-Roby said. "I stuck out my tongue, and he goes, ‘We’re going to the hospital. You’re having a stroke."

Instead of going straight out, her tongue went out to the side. Over the years working as an oil operator for his company, he had safety training annually for CPR, and how to look for health warning signs, Roby said. While things changed over the years, some things were always consistent, and the tongue test stuck with him.

Schultz-Roby had experienced an isometric stroke that affected the right side of her body, she said. Two blood clots caused it, and she was flown to Methodist Hospital Northeast in Live Oak for treatment. She spent nine days in the Intensive Care Unit and another 10 days in the hospital's inpatient rehabilitation.

Alan Roby, husband of Tracy Schultz-Roby, smiles after his wife finished her workout Thursday at Zoom Physical Therapy and Wellness in Cuero. Roby was there when he noticed his wife was suffering a stroke and took her to the hospital. "I’m proud of her, she has come a long way," Roby said. "She's a hell of a partner and she’ll make it."

While the staff at the hospital were nice, Schultz-Roby said, being taken care of as an outgoing person was frustrating, mainly not being able to clean herself and the isolation during her rehabilitation. She was left alone for 23 hours and only would see people during her one hour of rehabilitation.

"When you’re in the hospital, there is no privacy," she said. "They say it's shower day, and you’re getting in the shower, and they bathe you. For me, it was kind of humiliating and humbling. I didn't see the sunshine for nine days, so when they put me in front of a window, I started crying."

When she finished her occupational therapy, she was released from the hospital, Roby said. But she still had other rehabilitation work she needed to do, which she completed at a Zoom Physical Therapy and Wellness clinic in Cuero.

However, during this time, Schultz-Roby was trying to figure out a way to restore some dignity for herself and be able to clean herself. All while Roby retired from his job to help care for his wife full time after the stroke.

She eventually thought of an idea of a showerhead that could help give not only her dignity, but for other stroke patients.

Schultz-Roby calls it a Shower Wand. It is a showerhead with a handle that can extend up to 16-18 inches, where those who have suffered a stroke can clean themselves with the traditional showerhead on one side and a sponge with a soap dispenser on the other that the user can switch the water flow to the other side to use.

She shared her idea with her husband, and they found nothing on the market and have since filed for a patent that is currently pending. They hope for it to start manufacturing next year.

However, she plans to go further with her own nonprofit to help other stroke victims, which will work in tandem with a recovery center.

"It's not limited to the elderly per se anymore. I know a 14-year-old girl who had a stroke," Schultz-Roby said. "It's a much wider variety of age nowadays."

Every 40 seconds, someone in the U.S. suffers a stroke, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Every year, more than 795,000 people in the United States have a stroke which is the leading cause of serious long-term disability and can affect any age.

With the recovery center, she hopes to create an environment in that stroke patients can get their rehabilitation treatment they need in an environment that is more friendly, open and sociable with therapies based around horse riding to build core strength, aquatic therapy to help with mobility and a garden to for patients to go into and get some sun.

The nonprofit aspect would help provide aid to those who need funding to pay for a patient's recovery who wouldn't otherwise be able to afford it, Schultz-Roby said

Roby said everything people do in their everyday life is something they have to relearn and rehabilitate and this will help put normalcy back into their life after surviving a stroke.

"I’ve become a better person because of (my stroke)," Schultz-Roby said. "I look around, and I ask, ‘How can I help people,’ and that's a positive from it."

Kyle Cotton was born and raised in San Antonio and graduated from San Antonio College and the University of Texas at Arlington. Cotton has covered economic development, health care, finance, government, technology, oil and gas and higher education.

Health Reporter