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Robert A. Pritchard’s Story
A life of promise. A journey of resilience. A story that inspired a mission.
Robert A. Pritchard is a son, brother, college graduate, and stroke survivor whose journey became the inspiration behind the Robert A. Pritchard Stroke & Health Initiative. At just 22 years old, Robert experienced a life-changing stroke that would forever change his path and ultimately inspire a mission of awareness, support, and hope.
A Life Changing Moment
One Stroke Changed Everything!
On July 9, 2012, Robert Pritchard's life changed in an instant.
Robert had always been a healthy, athletic young man with his future ahead of him. At just 22 years old and only two months after earning his Bachelor of Arts degree in Criminal Justice from the University of Central Florida. He should have been stepping into one of the most exciting chapters of his life. Instead, Robert and his family suddenly found themselves facing a journey none of them could have imagined.
Robert was stricken with a relatively rare condition known as Cerebral Venous Sinus Thrombosis (CVST). CVST occurs when a blood clot forms in the brain's venous sinuses, preventing blood from properly draining from the brain. In Robert's case, the condition led to bleeding in the brain, a hemorrhage, and ultimately a devastating stroke.
What followed was a fight for his life. Robert spent two and a half weeks in the Intensive Care Unit at Emory University Hospital in Atlanta. He was placed in a medically induced coma and relied on a tracheotomy tube to breathe. As pressure dangerously increased inside his brain, doctors performed a lifesaving procedure that required removing half of his skull. The bone was placed in his abdomen, where it remained for eight months to preserve the tissue until it could safely be returned.
For Robert's family, those days were filled with fear, uncertainty, prayers, and waiting. The young man who had walked across a college stage only months earlier was now lying in an intensive care unit fighting for his life. There was no roadmap for what came next and no guarantee of what recovery would look like.
But Robert was still fighting.
In February 2013, after months of healing, the portion of Robert's skull that had been removed was successfully replaced. Surviving the stroke, however, was only the beginning. Robert now faced the enormous task of rebuilding the independence and physical abilities that had once come so naturally to him. His rehabilitation continued at Shepherd Center in Atlanta, where Robert received extensive rehabilitation treatment and began the long journey forward, one movement, one milestone, and one victory at a time.
He progressed from a wheelchair, to a walker, to a cane. And eventually Robert walked again without assistance.
Recovery & Determination
Recovery was not the end of Robert’s journey; it was the beginning of learning how to live his life differently. After everything he had endured, Robert refused to allow his stroke to define what he could accomplish. The road
forward required patience, perseverance, and tremendous determination as he continued rebuilding his strength and adjusting to a new chapter of life.
One of Robert’s goals was to continue his education. Despite the challenges he faced following his stroke, he returned to the University of Central Florida and pursued the dream he had started before his life changed.
In August 2018, six years after his stroke, Robert proudly completed his Master of Science degree in Criminal Justice. Walking across that stage represented far more than earning another degree. It was a moment of triumph, a reminder of how far he had come from the hospital bed, the wheelchair, the walker, and the cane.
Robert had been given every reason to stop. He chose to keep moving forward.
Journey Into Purpose
Robert's journey did not end with recovery or earning his master's degree. What he endured gave him a personal understanding of the fear, uncertainty, and challenges that stroke survivors and their families can face.
Rather than allowing those experiences to remain only a difficult chapter in his own life, Robert began using his journey to encourage and support others. He became involved in stroke awareness and survivor advocacy, sharing his experience and reminding others that recovery does not always follow a straight path and that progress is worth celebrating at every stage.
Robert and his mother also became involved with the Scott Coopersmith Stroke Awareness Foundation, supporting efforts to raise awareness and encourage stroke survivors and their families.
His experience also led his mom to serve through the Shepherd Center Brain Injury Peer Visitor Program, where he has been able to offer something especially meaningful to others navigating recovery: the understanding of someone who has lived through it himself.
What began as Robert's fight to survive gradually became an opportunity to give hope, encouragement, and support to others facing their own journey.
From survivor to supporter. From experience to purpose!