When most people think of having a stroke, they think only of the elderly. While it is true that the elderly have the majority of strokes each year, they also affect the young.
In Evansville, IN, there recently was a 34 year-old woman who is a flight nurse and had a stroke. She told the local newspaper that she was driving home from her job and talking on the phone. Suddenly, she started to have difficulty speaking and was garbling her words. She said that her right side was paralyzed and she knew that she had had a stroke.
The woman parked on the side of the road and waited for help. Her husband soon arrived and took her to the ER. She had a CT scan that showed a major clot on the bottom of her brain. It was very large and could not be treated with drugs to dissolve the clot. Fortunately, at another hospital, doctors were able to remove the clot by going through a vein in her grain.
It turned out that she had a hole in her heart that caused the clot in her brain. Doctors fixed the hole in her heart, again by going through a leg vein.
Today, she has been able to fully recover and is back to work. She was fortunate in that she recognized right away what was happening and got treatment.
Remember: People of any age can have a stroke. Always be on the watch of the signs of stroke:
- Facial drooping on one side.
- One side of the body may feel heavy or droop, or have numbness.
- Difficulty in speaking or finding words, or jumbled words that do not make sense
- Get to the ER ASAP if you see any of these above signs in yourself or a loved one.
