What is After the Storm?
After the Storm is a research and artistic project exploring how patients experience life after an aortic dissection.
While acute treatment is often successful, many patients describe a lasting change in how they perceive their body. S quiet, ongoing awareness of heartbeat, breathing, and physical sensations.
These experiences are rarely captured in clinical care, yet they shape daily life in profound ways.
Why this matters
Recovery after aortic dissection extends far beyond physical healing.
Many patients describe a persistent awareness of their body. Listening to their heartbeat, sensing subtle changes, and interpreting signals in a new way.
This form of vigilance is not easily captured in medical follow-up, yet it deeply influences quality of life.
After the Storm brings attention to this often overlooked dimension of recovery.
What we do
- Work with patients as co-creators to explore lived experiences after dissection
- Record voice, breath, silence, and environmental sounds
- Translate sensory experiences into sound-based compositions
- Develop collective soundscapes reflecting life after aortic dissection
- Create new ways to share patient experiences beyond clinical language
Scientific foundation
After the Storm is developed within the TARGet research group and builds on extensive clinical and scientific expertise in aortic disease.
The project brings together clinicians, researchers, and patients, in collaboration with international academic partners introducing an innovative approach at the intersection of medicine, patient experience, and art.
By combining clinical insight with artistic practice, the project explores new ways of understanding recovery after cardiovascular events.
Impact
For individuals
Offering recognition and shared understanding of experiences that are often difficult to express.
For researchers
Opening new perspectives on patient experience beyond traditional clinical measures.
For healthcare
Encouraging a broader view of recovery that includes sensory and experiential dimensions.
For society
Increasing awareness of the long-term impact of life-threatening cardiovascular events.
Other work from TARGet.
SUKH Healing Garden
Nature-inspired environments for recovery, wellbeing, and resilience.
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APECx Study
Understanding global cardiac surgery practices to improve outcomes and standardise care worldwide.
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Aviation & Thoracic Aortic Disease
Understanding the safety of air travel in patients with aortic disease.
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