This is episode 137 of the Swallier Pride Podcast and today's guest is Lauren Barnathan.

She's a practicing speech pathologist in St. Petersburg, Florida at the Front Medical Center.

She began her career in 2010 as a speech

pathologist in the school system specializing in early intervention for

children with autism spectrum disorder. After receiving her master's

degree in speech language pathology from the University of South Florida,

Lauren completed a clinical fellowship year in the acute care setting at Lakeland

Regional Health in Lakeland, Florida in 2015.

In January of 2018, Lauren suffered a spontaneous carotid dissection leading to a right middle cerebral artery stroke.

She was treated at Tampa General Hospital in Tampa, Florida, where her then fiance and now husband was completing his

residency in emergency medicine. After making a near full recovery, Lauren went

on to achieve several milestones, including running a half marathon, getting married and obtaining a sought-after speech

pathology position at Tampa General Hospital, working alongside providers who once treated

her.

Lauren continues to practice speech pathology in the acute care and inpatient rehab settings

while focusing on evidence-based research and a holistic whole patient approach.

She and her husband remained committed to sharing her journey on a personal local and national

level.

This could not be any more of an inspiring story and I think especially now with COVID-19 going on. I think this is, we're all excited to hear a nice

inspiring story and Lauren is just amazing. I'm so glad I had the chance to talk to her and I just love what she said in her way that that

basically having her stroke change the way that she approaches patients and with just a much

more compassionate mindset and a really rigorous approach.

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