When Chris Wilder had a massive stroke four years ago, doctors told his wife that he might not survive — and if he did, he might not ever walk or talk again.

The former Valley Health Foundation executive director, then 53, had been rushed from his home in the Santa Cruz Mountains to Good Samaritan Hospital after Kate Wilder noticed her husband’s face slump — a sign of a stroke. As Wilder’s brain swelled, doctor’s removed a large section of his skull and subsequently his left temporal lobe — a key part of the brain responsible for communication.

Once he was stable, Wilder was transferred to Valley Medical Center — Santa Clara County’s flagship public hospital with a nationally ranked rehabilitation center — where he spent the next six months relearning how to stand and teaching his brai

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