20 Year-Old Stroke Survivor Shares the Warning Signs
Sarah was a healthy college student and at the early age of 20, she suffered her first stroke. It happened again at 24. Now 26, she joins The Doctors to share more about her health scare.
When her first stroke hit her, she tells The Doctors that she felt “dizzy and disoriented” while sitting in class and she thought she might have just been tired. A fellow classmate turned to her and said, “I think you just had a seizure,” but Sarah didn’t believe that was even a possibility. When she tried to leave class she lost feeling on the right side of her body, developed an intense migraine and facial drooping.
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After a call to her parents, she immediately went to the emergency room and began to have trouble with her speech. It was not until a year later, it was determined that she was dealing with an arteriovenous malformation in her brain after she had a second stroke. Following the second stroke, she underwent surgery to correct it.
ER physician Dr. Travis Stork warns that 1 in 5 women will have a stroke, which is two times the rate of deaths from breast cancer.
“It is like a heart attack for the brain, where part of the brain does not get blood supply… when your brain is not getting oxygen, not only does it not function properly, but you can lose capabilities for the rest of your life. That’s why we talk about reacting so quickly to these things,” Dr. Stork explains. He stresses when it comes to strokes, “Time is brain,” and the quicker you seek medical attention the better.
Watch: Face Blindness Caused by Stroke
Sarah is happy to share that she has had 2 completely successful recoveries and does not suffer any lasting effects from the strokes.
The Doctors remind everyone it is always best to error on the side of caution when dealing with the possibility of a stroke and that it is not just the elderly or overweight population who are susceptible them.
