ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Roberto D'Angelo + Francesca Fedeli - Parents
Roberto D'Angelo and Francesca Fedeli created the social enterprise FightTheStroke.org to open up a dialogue about the devastating effects of strokes at a young age. This issue is important to them for a simple reason: because they've been through it themselves with their son Mario.

Why you should listen

When Roberto D'Angelo and Francesca Fedeli’s son, Mario, was just 10 days old, he was diagnosed as having had a perinatal stroke in the right side of his brain, which left him unable to move the left side of his body. Through mirror neuron rehabilitation, Mario is now 5 years old and has greatly improved motion.

The tech-savvy couple founded FightTheStroke.org to gather and share the experiences of families who have been affected by all types of infant and childhood strokes. The social movement wants to open up a dialogue about the devastating effects of this traumatic event, advocating for young stroke survivors and using technology and open medicine as enablers for their better future. Together, as a family, they’re promoting the awareness of this story as motivational speakers at events like TED, they're proud ambassaros of TEDMED in Italy and promoters of the first Medicine Hackathon in Italy, aimed to regroup the leading experts on Medicine and Innovation. Roberto is Director for Online Learning at Microsoft Italy, while Francesca currently focuses her management expertise in the FightTheStroke.org project, and they are developing an innovative rehabilitation platform based on Mirror Neurons. Francesca also acts as a member of various Board of Patients Associations, became an Eisenhower Fellow in 2014 and the first Ashoka Fellow in Italy in 2015.

 

More profile about the speaker
Roberto D'Angelo + Francesca Fedeli | Speaker | TED.com
TEDGlobal 2013

Roberto D'Angelo + Francesca Fedeli: In our baby's illness, a life lesson

Roberto D'Angelo + Francesca Fedeli: Na doença do nosso bebê, uma lição de vida

Filmed:
1,239,223 views

Roberto D'Angelo e Francesca Fedeli pensavam que o seu bebê Mario era saudável -- até que com 10 dias de idade, eles descobriram que ele havia sofrido um derrame perinatal. Com Mario incapaz de controlar o lado esquerdo de seu corpo, eles lutaram contra difíceis questões: Ele seria "normal"? Poderia viver uma vida plena? A comovente história de pais encarando seus medos -- e como eles deram uma reviravolta nos problemas.
- Parents
Roberto D'Angelo and Francesca Fedeli created the social enterprise FightTheStroke.org to open up a dialogue about the devastating effects of strokes at a young age. This issue is important to them for a simple reason: because they've been through it themselves with their son Mario. Full bio

Double-click the English transcript below to play the video.

00:13
Francesca Fedeli: Ciao.
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Francesca Fideli: Ciao.
00:15
So he's Mario. He's our son.
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Este é Mario. Ele é nosso filho.
00:18
He was born two and a half years ago,
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Ele nasceu há dois anos e meio,
00:21
and I had a pretty tough pregnancy
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e eu tive uma gestação bastante difícil
00:25
because I had to stay still in a bed for, like, eight months.
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porque tive que ficar
em repouso por, tipo, oito meses
00:29
But in the end everything seemed to be under control.
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Mas no final tudo parecia
estar sob controle.
00:32
So he got the right weight at birth.
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Então ele tinha o peso certo ao nascer.
00:35
He got the right Apgar index.
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Ele obteve o índice Apgar correto
00:37
So we were pretty reassured by this.
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Então isto nos deixou bastante seguros.
00:40
But at the end, 10 days later after he was born,
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Mas no final, 10 dias após ter nascido,
00:47
we discovered that he had a stroke.
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descobrimos que ele havia tido um derrame.
00:49
As you might know,
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Como vocês sabem,
00:51
a stroke is a brain injury.
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um derrame é um dano no cérebro.
00:54
A perinatal stroke could be something
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Um derrame perinatal poderia ser algo
00:56
that can happen during the nine months of pregnancy
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que pode acontecer durante
os nove meses de gestação
01:00
or just suddenly after the birth,
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ou logo após o nascimento,
01:03
and in his case, as you can see,
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e no caso dele, como podem ver,
01:06
the right part of his brain has gone.
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a parte direita de seu cérebro se foi.
01:10
So the effect that this stroke could have on Mario's body
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Assim o efeito que este derrame
poderia ter sobre o corpo de Mario
01:15
could be the fact that he couldn't be able to control
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poderia ser o fato de que ele poderia
não ser capaz de controlar
01:19
the left side of his body.
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o lado esquerdo de seu corpo.
01:21
Just imagine, if you have a computer and a printer
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Apenas imaginem, se você tem
um computador e uma impressora
01:25
and you want to transmit, to input to print out a document,
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e você quer transmitir,
enviar um documento para imprimir,
01:29
but the printer doesn't have the right drives,
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mas a impressora
não possui os drivers corretos
01:33
so the same is for Mario.
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assim é o mesmo para Mario.
01:36
It's just like, he would like to move his left side
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É como, se ele quisesse
mover o lado esquerdo
01:39
of his body, but he's not able to transmit the right input
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de seu corpo, mas não fosse capaz
de transmitir os comandos corretos
01:43
to move his left arm and left leg.
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para mover seu braço
e sua perna esquerdos.
01:48
So life had to change.
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Assim a vida tinha que mudar.
01:50
We needed to change our schedule.
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Precisávamos mudar nosso esquema.
01:52
We needed to change the impact that this birth had
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Precisávamos mudar o impacto
que seu nascimento teve
01:58
on our life.
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em nossa vida.
02:00
Roberto D'Angelo: As you may imagine,
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Roberto D'Angelo: Como podem imaginar,
02:02
unfortunately, we were not ready.
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infelizmente, não estávamos preparados.
02:05
Nobody taught us how to deal with such kinds of disabilities,
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Ninguém nos ensinou
a lidar com tais desabilidades,
e tantas perguntas
quantas possíveis começaram
02:09
and as many questions as possible started
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02:11
to come to our minds.
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a vir em nossas mentes.
02:13
And that has been really a tough time.
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E este foi um tempo bem difícil.
02:16
Questions, some basics, like, you know,
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Perguntas, algumas básicas,
tipo, vocês sabem,
02:18
why did this happen to us?
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por que isto aconteceu conosco?
02:20
And what went wrong?
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O que deu errado?
02:22
Some more tough, like, really,
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Algumas mais duras, tipo, realmente,
Qual será o impacto na vida de Mario?
02:25
what will be the impact on Mario's life?
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02:27
I mean, at the end, will he be able to work?
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Quer dizer, no fim,
ele será capaz de trabalhar?
02:28
Will he be able to be normal?
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Ele será capaz de ser normal?
02:30
And, you know, as a parent, especially for the first time,
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E, sabem, como pai,
especialmente pela primeira vez,
02:33
why is he not going to be better than us?
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por que ele não vai ser melhor do que nós?
02:37
And this, indeed, really is tough to say,
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E isto, na verdade,
realmente é difícil de dizer,
02:40
but a few months later, we realized that
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mas poucos meses depois, percebemos que
02:43
we were really feeling like a failure.
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estávamos realmente
nos sentindo como um fracasso.
02:46
I mean, the only real product of our life,
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Quero dizer, o único produto
verdadeiro de nossa vida,
02:49
at the end, was a failure.
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no final, era um fracasso
02:51
And you know, it was not a failure for ourselves in itself,
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E vocês sabem, não era um fracasso
para nós mesmos em si,
02:57
but it was a failure that will impact his full life.
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mas um fracasso que causará
um impacto na vida dele toda.
03:02
Honestly, we went down.
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Honestamente, ficamos deprimidos.
03:03
I mean we went really down, but at the end,
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Quero dizer ficamos
realmente deprimidos, mas no fim,
03:07
we started to look at him,
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começamos a olhar para ele,
03:09
and we said, we have to react.
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e dissemos, temos que reagir.
03:11
So immediately, as Francesca said, we changed our life.
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Assim, imediatamente, como Francesca
disse, mudamos nossa vida.
03:14
We started physiotherapy, we started the rehabilitation,
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Começamos a fisioterapia,
começamos a reabilitação,
03:17
and one of the paths that we were following
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e um dos caminhos que estávamos seguindo
03:19
in terms of rehabilitation is the mirror neurons pilot.
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em termos de reabilitação
é o piloto de neurônios espelhado.
03:22
Basically, we spent months doing this with Mario.
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Basicamente, passamos meses
fazendo isto com Mario.
03:26
You have an object, and we showed him
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Você tem um objeto, e mostrávamos a ele
03:29
how to grab the object.
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como agarrar o objeto.
03:31
Now, the theory of mirror neurons simply says
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Agora, a teoria dos neurônios espelhados
simplesmente diz
03:34
that in your brains, exactly now, as you watch me doing this,
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que em seu cérebro, exatamente agora,
enquanto você me observa a fazer isto,
03:38
you are activating exactly the same neurons
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você está ativando exatamente
os mesmos neurônios
03:40
as if you do the actions.
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como se fizesse as ações.
03:44
It looks like this is the leading edge in terms of rehabilitation.
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Parece que este é o tratamento
de vanguarda em termos de reabilitação
03:48
But one day we found that Mario
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Mas um dia descobrimos que Mario
03:51
was not looking at our hand.
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não estava olhando para as nossas mãos.
03:55
He was looking at us.
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Estava olhando para nós
03:57
We were his mirror.
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Nós éramos seu espelho.
04:00
And the problem, as you might feel,
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E o problema, como podem sentir,
04:02
is that we were down, we were depressed,
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é que estávamos deprimidos,
estávamos depressivos,
04:04
we were looking at him as a problem,
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estávamos olhando
para ele como um problema,
04:06
not as a son, not from a positive perspective.
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não como um filho,
não de uma perspectiva positiva.
04:11
And that day really changed our perspective.
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E aquele dia realmente
mudou nossa perspectiva.
04:14
We realized that we had to become
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Compreendemos que tínhamos que nos tornar
04:18
a better mirror for Mario.
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um espelho melhor para Mario.
04:20
We restarted from our strengths,
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Recomeçamos de nossas forças,
04:22
and at the same time we restarted from his strengths.
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e ao mesmo tempo
recomeçamos de suas forças.
04:26
We stopped looking at him as a problem,
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Paramos de olhar
para ele como um problema,
04:29
and we started to look at him as an opportunity to improve.
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e começamos a vê-lo
como uma oportunidade para melhorar.
04:33
And really, this was the change,
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E realmente, esta foi a mudança,
04:36
and from our side, we said,
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e do nosso lado, dissemos,
"Quais são os nossos pontos fortes
que poderíamos trazer para Mario?"
04:39
"What are our strengths that we really can bring to Mario?"
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E começamos das nossas paixões.
04:42
And we started from our passions.
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04:43
I mean, at the end, my wife and myself
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Quero dizer, no final,
minha esposa e eu
04:45
are quite different,
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somos bem diferentes,
04:46
but we have many things in common.
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mas temos muitas coisas em comum.
04:49
We love to travel, we love music,
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Adoramos viajar, adoramos música,
04:51
we love to be in places like this,
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amamos estar em lugares como este,
04:53
and we started to bring Mario with us
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e começamos a trazer Mario conosco
04:55
just to show to him the best things that we can show to him.
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apenas para lhe mostrar as melhores coisas
que podemos lhe mostrar
04:59
This short video is from last week.
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Este pequeno vídeo é da semana passada.
05:05
I am not saying --
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Não estou dizendo --
05:06
(Applause) —
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(Aplausos) --
Não estou dizendo que é um milagre.
Não é esta a mensagem,
05:08
I am not saying it's a miracle. That's not the message,
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05:11
because we are just at the beginning of the path.
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porque estamos apenas
no inicio do caminho.
05:13
But we want to share what was the key learning,
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Mas queremos compartilhar
que esta é a chave para o aprendizado.
05:17
the key learning that Mario drove to us,
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A chave do aprendizado
que Mario nos trouxe,
05:19
and it is to consider what you have as a gift
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e é considerar o que você tem como um dom
05:22
and not only what you miss,
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e não apenas o que falta a você,
05:26
and to consider what you miss just as an opportunity.
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e considerar o que falta a você
apenas como uma oportunidade.
05:30
And this is the message that we want to share with you.
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E esta é a mensagem que queremos
compartilhar com vocês.
05:33
This is why we are here.
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E por isto que estamos aqui.
05:37
Mario!
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Mario!
05:39
And this is why --
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E é por isso
05:40
(Applause) —
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(Aplausos) -
05:45
And this is why
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E é por isso
05:50
we decided to share the best mirror in the world with him.
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que decidimos compartilhar
o melhor espelho do mundo com ele.
05:56
And we thank you so much, all of you.
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E agradecemos muitíssimo, a todos vocês.
05:59
FF: Thank you.
RD: Thank you. Bye.
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FF: Obrigada.
RD: Obrigado. Tchau.
06:01
(Applause)
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(Aplausos)
06:05
FF: Thank you. (Applause)
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FF: Obrigada. (Aplausos)
Translated by Tania Piorino
Reviewed by Gustavo Rocha

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ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Roberto D'Angelo + Francesca Fedeli - Parents
Roberto D'Angelo and Francesca Fedeli created the social enterprise FightTheStroke.org to open up a dialogue about the devastating effects of strokes at a young age. This issue is important to them for a simple reason: because they've been through it themselves with their son Mario.

Why you should listen

When Roberto D'Angelo and Francesca Fedeli’s son, Mario, was just 10 days old, he was diagnosed as having had a perinatal stroke in the right side of his brain, which left him unable to move the left side of his body. Through mirror neuron rehabilitation, Mario is now 5 years old and has greatly improved motion.

The tech-savvy couple founded FightTheStroke.org to gather and share the experiences of families who have been affected by all types of infant and childhood strokes. The social movement wants to open up a dialogue about the devastating effects of this traumatic event, advocating for young stroke survivors and using technology and open medicine as enablers for their better future. Together, as a family, they’re promoting the awareness of this story as motivational speakers at events like TED, they're proud ambassaros of TEDMED in Italy and promoters of the first Medicine Hackathon in Italy, aimed to regroup the leading experts on Medicine and Innovation. Roberto is Director for Online Learning at Microsoft Italy, while Francesca currently focuses her management expertise in the FightTheStroke.org project, and they are developing an innovative rehabilitation platform based on Mirror Neurons. Francesca also acts as a member of various Board of Patients Associations, became an Eisenhower Fellow in 2014 and the first Ashoka Fellow in Italy in 2015.

 

More profile about the speaker
Roberto D'Angelo + Francesca Fedeli | Speaker | TED.com