Councilor Haynes recovering from stroke

LACONIA — City Councilor Mark Haynes is recovering from a stroke and is crediting the quick response by others for the optimistic prognosis for his recovery, the councilor said Monday.

Haynes, speaking from his bed at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center, said doctors have told him that he suffered a “minor bleed” and will need rehabilitation therapy. The rehab treatment will take place at a rehabilitation hospital in Concord. Haynes said he expected to be transferred there soon, perhaps as soon as Monday.

Haynes started feeling unwell when he arrived at City Hall for the City Council meeting last Monday.

“As soon as I started going up the stairs (to the second floor where the council chambers are located) I noticed something didn’t feel right,” he explained.

When he got to the chambers he sat in his chair at the council table and he told fellow Councilors Robert Soucy and Bob Hamel he thought he felt all right again. But moments later when he started to stand up he had difficulty keeping his balance.

“They said ‘You’re not all right,’” Haynes said of the reaction of the two other councilors, and immediately City Clerk Cheryl Hebert called 9-1-1.

Haynes was taken by ambulance to Concord Hospital-Laconia and shortly afterward airlifted to Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center in Lebanon, he said.

He said his situation could have been much worse if it had not been for the quick action by Soucy, Hamel and Hebert.

Sudden onset of dizziness, trouble walking or loss of balance, is considered one of the five warning signs of a stroke, according to the Mayo Clinic.

Haynes said he has some numbness in his right foot. Doctors have told him that symptom may eventually go away, but that rehabilitation therapy will help him to deal with that condition in the meantime.

“I just want to get back to feeling normal,” Haynes said.