We were lucky to catch up with Duncan Campling recently and have shared our conversation below.

Duncan, appreciate you joining us today. Was there a moment in your career that meaningfully altered your trajectory? If so, we’d love to hear the backstory.

My defining moment as a stroke survivor was probably during my first day surviving stroke.

One sunny 2018 March morning at my home in suburban Philadelphia, I called my manager in Brooklyn, New York, informing him that I urgently needed to take a power-nap, as I had an earth-shattering headache. Phoning my manager was one of the niceties of working from home. As I slowly drifted off, I tried slightly adjusting my position, but I awoke suddenly. To my horror, I realized I was paralyzed head-to-toe, and was only able to blink!

Eventually Ed, my kitchen contractor found me. He wanted to show me his progress, but soon realized I was in a medical crisis, and promptly alerted my then wife, who was downstairs. She was advised by the emergency services to proceed with CPR, however I remained trapped within. Astonishingly, I had a brief out of body experience. From my master bedroom ceiling, I somehow viewed my wife frantically give me chest compressions. Was I already dreaming?

The ambulance arrived, and my lifeless body was swiftly transferred from the warm, comforting embrace of my bed, to an emergency stretcher. The first responders wrongly assumed I must have overdosed on hard drugs. At 47, they figured I was too young to have something like a stroke. That’s why I never received clot busting TPA drugs for my first stroke. During the ambulance ride one of the first responders actually said to his colleague while looking at my face, “can I call it?” After immediately ascertaining he was referring to my time of death. I wanted to loudly exclaim, “CAN’T YOU TELL I’M STILL ALIVE?!” However the mind/muscle connections from my brain to my mouth, had apparently been severed. No words came out.

Duncan, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

Birthed and educated in London, England. At 24, I chose to emigrate to America for professional reasons. 1996 was the exact year, and I eventually lived in the Upper East Side of Manhattan, and worked in the iconic Empire State Building. NYC was constantly evolving, and I was excited to be working at the intersection of technology and Wall Street finance. It was an incredible and pivotal time. Cell phones were busy shrinking, and Manhattan was rightly at the center of the universe.

By 2018, the year of my two strokes, I had become a lead technical recruiter for Amazon Corporate in Seattle, and separately Etsy’s global HQ in Brooklyn. In essence, I consulted with software development managers or directors to buildout their teams of programmers and software designers. For recreation, I enjoyed lounging poolside, camping and playing electric guitar until my house literally shook. However my American dream would soon take a dramatic turn.

We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?

I’ve had to lean to be patient. Before my strokes I wanted everything immediately on a stick, but now I’ve learned to be super patient for things, as I’m obviously less independent than before.

Do you think you’d choose a different profession or specialty if you were starting now?

I wouldn’t choose stroke for anyone, as I lost everything I’d been striving for my whole life. For me, stroke was probably caused by a narrow artery in my head, which was obviously unavoidable.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: @thisisduncan917
• Youtube: @wheelzinglisband

Image Credits

Me