Years Ago Supernatural Actor Had a Stroke; Now He's Back Saving Lives - Literally
Rob Benedict, the actor who inhabited the character of Chuck Shurley aka God for the Supernatural series, suffered a stroke back in 2013. Today, he uses every opportunity to speak about ways people can quickly identify the condition and help those who suffered it.
It all happened during one of Rob Benedict's Supernatural fan conventions and started as a prank, when two of his co-stars climbed onstage, lifted him and turned him upside down.
An hour passed and the actor felt a terrible headache combined with a speech difficulty. However, he managed to do an autograph session and went to his hotel totally exhausted. Thank God another actor spotted that Benedict behaved in a strange way and called his pal whose granddad had suffered a stroke.
This is when the friend told Benedict he should get hospitalized immediately. At the hospital the God actor was confirmed to have suffered a stroke – he had a blood clot in his brain. Turning Benedict upside down could have caused his carotid artery to dissect, which led to his condition.
The incident happened as the Supernatural TV series was in its Season 9 and it took Benedict quite some time to be back to normal after sessions with a speech therapist and numerous auditions. He worked hard to be able to return to his role on the show.
Benedict is also a member of a rock band and following his near-death experience he wrote a song called "Amazing".
"It's about lying in my hospital bed, not being able to communicate, but thinking about this sort of amazing grace that I made it through everything," he said (via), adding that the audience would sing along making it "a supportive song with a whole new character."
The actor also spends a lot of time speaking about warning signs to spot a stroke. They are called the "F.A.S.T." which is the abbreviation for symptoms and the action to be taken: F = Face drooping, A = Arm weakness, S = Speech difficulty, T = Time to call 911.
Benedict says that one of the things, which makes him happy is when people would come up and tell him that they managed to save their relatives because of him. "I heard what you said about F.A.S.T. and acted promptly,' they would say.
Rob Benedict was lucky to get to hospital within in a couple of hours after he had suffered a stroke and survived. "I can talk about that and help give back in some way," he now says.
A true God saving people's lives.