Voice, interrupted


Bartamaha March 08 2009

By KRISTIN TILLOTSON, Star Tribune

Feb. 22: Mohamed Hussien received a grape from his 5-year-old son, Nabil. After the 37-year-old BBC reporter suffered a stroke on Jan. 27, a bed was set up for him in the family living room of the Hussiens’ Burnsville home. In limbo (Video)

Mohamed Hussien was living the kind of up-by-the-bootstraps American dream that would have prompted Horatio Alger to turn a cartwheel. Until a month ago, when his plans suddenly got put on hold.
After emigrating from Somalia to the United States in the early 1990s, unable to speak a word of English, Hussien's remarkable career path began on the night shift at a poultry plant in Moorhead, Minn. It peaked less than a year ago, when he landed the job of his boyhood fantasies -- Somali-language correspondent for the prestigious BBC, a primary source of news for Somalis everywhere.

He was happy, healthy, on top of the world. Then, on Jan. 27, as his flight from Minneapolis neared the East Coast, he suddenly felt weak. When the plane landed in Philadelphia, he got up to retrieve his bag in the overhead bin, and fell down. He tried to stand, and fell down again. "That's when I knew I needed some help," he said.

Mohamed Hussien with his family just days before his stroke. From left: daughter Hamdi, 12; son Nasir, 13; son Nabil,5; wife Farhiya, and son Najib, 9.

At age 37, with no prior health problems, he had just had a stroke. He was rushed to a hospital, the extent of the stroke's damage unknown. His wife, Farhiya Mohamud, a public-health nurse with Dakota County, flew east to be with him. The couple have four children and live in Burnsville.

"It was terrible, waiting," she said. "We didn't know if he would be able to move or speak."

He was soon able to do both, but with difficulty. Because of his relatively young age and otherwise good health, he has made greater daily gains than do most stroke victims. But as he sits at the kitchen table in his cozy town home, surrounded by family, it's clear he still has some way to go. His right arm is still stiff -- he's learning to write with his left -- but his handshake is much firmer than it was the week before.