Kim Hennings was walking down a hallway at the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources' Central Office Building in St. Paul three years ago when his coffee cup slipped from his left hand.

He bent to pick it up and dropped it again. And then again.

"I remember the exact date. It was March 16, 2009," Hennings said. "Everything was fine. No headache. No nothing. That's the weird thing about it. All of a sudden, I just lost my sense of coordination on my left side. Luckily, my co-workers realized something was wrong."

He was rushed to Regions Hospital, less than a mile from his office, where doctors immediately began working to repair an arterial dissection of his carotid artery that had resulted in a major stroke. "I was being treated within about a half-hour at Regions," he says. "That saved my life."

Hennings' left side was paralyzed. A portion of his skull had to be surgically removed and kept frozen for five weeks to relieve the swelling in his brain. He experienced short-term memory loss, anxiety, shortened attention span and impaired spatial perception. He had to learn to walk again.

Hennings, 59, who lives in White Bear Lake, spent six weeks at Regions and six weeks at Courage Center Golden Valley. Eighteen months of therapy at Courage Center St. Croix in Stillwater followed.

"I had never taken a sick day in 10 years. I was out 17 months," Hennings said. He returned to his job as land-acquisition manager for the DNR in August 2010.

Courage

"I believe that the most important contributor to my recovery was that every one of my therapists focused on knowing me, my needs and my wants," Hennings said. "They tailored my therapy to my unique interests."

Hennings went to Courage Center St. Croix four days a week for physical therapy, speech therapy and occupational therapy. "I had four goals: going back to work, driving, running and woodworking," he said.

Therapists planned rehab exercises to help him meet his goals.

"They knew I did a lot of work with data, so we worked with computer data programs, which was a real challenge just to enter the stuff because I had lost my attention to detail."

Hennings, a long-distance runner who had logged 15 marathons, was keen to get back on the road. "We worked on leg strength and getting my left leg to function normally to get my stride working again," he said. "I learned to walk in the pool. I started from square one, just learning to walk again."

Occupational therapists brought in woodworking tools such as hammers, nails and drills to rebuild Hennings' cabinet-making skills.

"They gave him his life back again," said Lynn Hennings, Kim's wife. "They pushed him, and they understood him. They knew when he was tired and when he was frustrated, and they would use that. They are just so in tune with their clients. From start to finish, they focused on Kim's goals. They never let him forget that that's what they were working on."

'I'M LUCKY TO BE HERE'

Peter Polga, director of planning and strategy for Courage Center's east metro service area, said Courage Center St. Croix was founded in 1988 as an offshoot of the Golden Valley-based rehabilitation center, which dates back more than 80 years.

"We're partners with our clients and families, other providers and the overall community," Polga said. "Clients couldn't achieve the success that they do without those strong relationships."

A major stroke can happen to anyone, Kim Hennings warned. "Everyone commented that they thought I would be the last person that would happen to, because of my lifestyle and my physical fitness," he said. "In fact, when they called one of my running friends to tell her what happened, she said, 'Tim?' instead of 'Kim' because she couldn't believe something like that could have happened to me. There is nothing I could have done to prevent it."

Fortunately, Hennings said, the stroke occurred while he was at work. "Lynn was out of town," he said. "If I had been at home or driving, I probably would be dead. The timing of it, that I was at work, if you want to look at it that way, was fortunate. Because anywhere else, I wouldn't have gotten the attention right away. I'm lucky to be here."

Lynn Hennings was visiting her mother in Grafton, Wis. "He would not have made it," she said. "I would have gotten home the next night, and he would have been gone, so I'm very, very grateful. ... There are so many things that could have been so much worse."

The Henningses, who have three children and one grandson, will celebrate their 35th wedding anniversary June 25. Lynn Hennings owns the Farmer's Daughter in White Bear Lake, a shop specializing in handcrafted items.

Kim Hennings said he hopes he'll soon be back making cabinets to sell in the shop.

He started running races again in 2010 but recently underwent surgery to repair a ruptured Achilles' tendon in his left foot. "I've been through worse, so this is a piece of cake," he said. But his plan to run the Twin Cities Marathon again has had to be postponed, at least for this year.

A member of South Shore Trinity Lutheran Church in White Bear Lake, Hennings said he believes his stroke was part of God's plan.

"This has strengthened my faith, and I think God wanted me to share it with people, so that's been a big change," Hennings said. "God has a plan. That's the way I look at it."

Mary Divine can be reached at 651-228-5443. Follow her at twitter.com/MaryEDivine.

IF YOU GO

The Encourage Breakfast, a fundraiser for Courage Center St. Croix in Stillwater, will be at 7:45 a.m. Tuesday, May 22, at the Prom Event Center, 484 Inwood Ave. N., Oakdale. For reservations, call Cindy Snyder at 651-351-2308.