Ken, a commercial artist, was training for a triathlon. "I felt stronger than ever," he said. But he started feeling dizzy and got off his bike. "Everything went black."
A friend called an ambulance, which took him to Littleton Regional Hospital. A CAT scan revealed that he'd had an aneurysm. He was sent immediately to Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center in Lebanon.
Ken underwent eight hours of brain surgery, had another surgery the next day, and had another several months later to install a shunt to control brain swelling.
The surgery Ken needed can have a temporary side effect of double vision. In Ken's case, it didn't go away. The aneurysm had been caused by an arterial venous malformation (AVM), a mass of tissue in the brain that had become weak and began bleeding.
Dartmouth-Hitchcock's Ophthalmology department fitted him for prism glasses to help correct his double vision.
"That was fantastic," Ken said. "But the thing that made a really big difference in being able to improve the quality of my life and move into my new life was when I was involved in speech pathology." Dartmouth-Hitchcock's speech pathologists helped Ken learn how to retrain his brain to compensate for his new circumstances.
With double vision, how could Ken, a commercial illustrator, continue to make a living?
"I made being able to draw again work for me by first allowing myself to be able to take the time I needed to deal with the fear that I may never draw again, and not to put any pressure on myself to start drawing any sooner than I had to," Ken said.
Ten months after his aneurysm, the vice president of Ken's creative department suggested that Ken instead paint what he actually saw. He mentioned Chuck Close, the artist whose realistic portraits Ken admires, and whose own artistic career was severely impacted - and influenced - when he suffered a spinal artery collapse that left him paralyzed.
Ken's post-surgery painting was of his friend Jason. "I remember looking at him and seeing two of him and thinking, 'Wow ... I'm having a conversation with two people.' He's the first person who put a pencil in my hand. So I thought to honor him, I'd paint him."
That first portrait took six months. Ken adapted to his new style so well that now, two years later, he's finished his latest work in only five days.
"These paintings distracted me from my pain and they allowed me a little bit of comfort and enjoy my life," Ken said. "The paintings for me also helped me understand what double vision is.
"In many ways, I'd take the old Ken back in a heartbeat. But since it's not an option for me, I'll accept the fact that I have a second life now, and now when I paint it's much easier because I'm not trying to pretend to be anybody other than who I am now."
Ken's first series of paintings were on display at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center in 2011.
"These doctors, Dartmouth, they saved my life," Ken said. "Because of everything they've given me, I want to give back to them. And that's why I've done these paintings - to show them that I'm grateful for the life they gave me and I'm going to make the most of it."
Read more about the Arts Program at Dartmouth-Hitchcock at http://patients.dartmouth-hitchcock.o....
To learn more about Ken and his art, visit http://www.explorepotential.com.
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