Recognizing Stroke Warning Signs Saves 54-Year-Old Grandmother's Life
In her mid-50s, Tracey Doyle didn’t think of herself as someone at risk for a stroke. She was staying with her daughter to help care for a new grandchild. At approximately 10 p.m. one night, she tried taking a drink of water and spilled it.
Loss of Hand Coordination Signals Stroke Symptoms
“I missed my mouth completely,” Doyle says. “My right hand wasn’t working.”
She went to find her daughter, who immediately sensed something was wrong and called her sister, Shayla Dursky, a stroke nurse at UnityPoint Health – St. Luke’s Hospital. Dursky recognized her mother was showing signs of a stroke. She called 911 and met the ambulance at St. Luke’s Emergency Department in Cedar Rapids, where emergency medicine physician Ryan Dowden, MD, was evaluating her mom.
Rapid Stroke Diagnosis and Clot-Busting Treatment
“I met Tracey with the paramedics inside the ambulance door,” Dr. Dowden recalls. “I obtained her history and performed a neurologic exam. Her symptoms and physical exam were consistent with a blockage of a large artery in her brain, so we sent her for an immediate CT scan including angiography with perfusion.”
This type of scan helps to confirm the blocked artery and how much brain tissue can be saved with clot-busting treatment. Not every patient is a candidate for clot-busting medication.
“There are a lot of considerations before administering thrombolytic therapy (medicine to dissolve clots),” explains Dr. Dowden. “We need to make sure the person is otherwise well, their stroke started within the previous four-and-a-half hours and there’s nothing else going on that might be mimicking a stroke.”
Dr. Dowden discussed the risks, benefits and alternatives with Doyle and Dursky, and they chose to move forward with thrombolytic therapy.
After the initial intervention at St. Luke’s, Doyle underwent further treatment and testing. Ultimately, it was determined she had both a blood clotting disorder and patent foramen ovale (PFO), a hole in the heart present in all newborns that didn’t close as it should have. Both conditions are risk factors for stroke and can be genetic.
Recovery Through Stroke Rehab and Therapy
Doyle later returned to St. Luke’s for inpatient rehabilitation. She spent a week receiving daily speech, occupational and physical therapy, followed by outpatient therapy at St. Luke’s Neurorehabilitation Clinic.
“After a stroke, you want to have as much therapy as you can in the first four to six months because that gives you the best chance for healing,” says senior physical therapist Michelle Langston. “Tracey had the type of stroke that mostly caused weakness on one side of her body. We worked on strengthening her affected side so she could walk safely without a cane or walker.”
Doyle says she enjoyed the time she spent using equipment in St. Luke’s rehab gym and that it played a big role in her recovery.
“Definitely stick with therapy,” Doyle advises others in her same situation. “They helped me speak normally, raise my arm over my head, which I couldn’t do before, and my balance is better.”
Time Lost is Brain Lost
Why Fast Emergency Care Matters
Doyle is also thankful for the quick treatment she received in the ER. She wants others to know the signs of stroke and the importance of seeking medical attention quickly. Dr. Dowden agrees and says timing was a major factor in Tracey’s successful treatment.
“Time is brain,” he says. “The longer you wait, the bigger the area of brain that’s affected – at the expense of salvageable brain. Tracey arrived in the ER less than two hours from when she was totally fine. That gave us plenty of time to do a full exam, CT scan and still have time to consider thrombolytic therapy.
“She also arrived by ambulance, which is key,” Dr. Dowden adds. “It’s almost always faster because the paramedics notify us before they arrive of findings consistent with stroke, so we can start to line up our resources before a patient arrives.”
Talk to Your Doctor
Strokes can happen to anyone and every second counts. Learning to recognize the warning signs of stroke and calling 911 immediately can mean the difference between full recovery and lasting damage. Talk to your doctor about your personal stroke risk factors, including conditions like PFO and blood clotting disorders that often go undetected.