A patient aged 107 has been treated on our stroke wards at Queen’s Hospital.

Puriben Parmar was born on New Year’s Day in 1918 in Gujarat, India.

The great-great grandmother of five generations, from Newbury Park in Ilford, suffered a stroke on Friday 9 May and was taken into A&E. Up until the day of her stroke, she used to be able to walk and make herself tea.

She was temporarily left unable to speak because of the stroke. This is common when the left side of the brain is affected, which controls language and speech.

Doctors gave her a powerful injection to clear the clot in her brain. They were shocked at what they saw looking at a CT scan.

Doctor Shehla Rehman, who helped to treat Puriben, said:

It was like looking at a 60- or 70-year-old brain.

The upper age limit for this procedure had previously been 80 until it was changed a few years ago.

I had to speak to her family before the treatment given her age.

Puriben indicated “Go ahead, go ahead”, holding my hand.

She is now in recovery from her stroke after the procedure was successfully carried out.

Puriben had 8 children, 17 grandchildren, 30 great-grandchildren and 13 great-great grandchildren.

She was born nine months before the First World War ended and back when India was under British colonial rule.

India’s future independence leader Mahatma Gandhi was based in the same state and was a rising figure in the country back when Puriben was born.

In the early 1940s, she moved to Kenya with her husband. The journey on the sailboat to the port city of Mombasa took one month.

While living in Kenya, Puriben used to help to deliver babies as a doula. In 1973, the family moved to the UK where they settled in Newbury Park.

Her positive outlook is a trait which her family believes has helped her reach such an old age.

Her son Jayant Parmar, aged 73, invited the team involved in her care to her bedside on Harvest A ward.

He said:

She is an incredibly resilient, happy and positive person.

From day one, all of the staff on A&E to Harvest A have been so helpful and we appreciate the care we have received.

We are blessed to have her and it is sad to see her in this predicament, but we have to take each day as it comes.

Thank you all of you.