Read these stories of strength from Health First patients who tackled their neurological challenges and found hope on the other side.

 

"If you have a stroke, you need to get help as quickly as possible," he said, "because the quicker you get help, the quicker you'll recover — and the better off you'll be."

 

Neil

Stroke patient

Neil, a 63-year-old business owner, was spending a Sunday on the golf course when a sudden numbness on the right side of his body caused him to drop his club and fall to the ground.

"What scared me more than anything is there was no one around," said Neil. His entire right side felt paralyzed and his cell phone was locked in his car.  

A good Samaritan found him and called 911. Neil was taken to the emergency room at Health First's Holmes Regional Medical Center, where he was told that he was experiencing a massive stroke due to a blood clot in his brain.

Neil first received intravenous tPA to help dissolve his blood clot and then underwent surgery to remove the clot. By that evening, he had regained mobility in his right arm and right leg and was told he had not suffered any brain damage from the stroke. Neil then underwent a second surgery to remove the source of the close from behind his heart and followed up with physical therapy to speed up his recovery.

He is back at work and back on the golf course.to work, drive, swing a golf club and is essentially back to life as usual. 

 

 

"I have done so much since then. I have gone kayaking!! You know, just embracing life as much as I can."

 

Shalayma

Stroke patient

Shalayma had skipped breakfast one day to help run the car line during drop-off at her school, but that wasn’t unusual – as the mother of a fast-paced 3-year-old boy, mornings could be hectic.

What happened next, however, was terrifying. Suddenly, she felt dizzy. As she tried to steady herself against a wall, she collapsed. It never occurred to her that she could be having a stroke.

“It was like lightening,” she explains. “You know your normal routine, and all of a sudden it’s like a shock. I’m a very healthy person. I work out, eat healthy – I’m 35. I never thought it could happen to me.”

A coworker quickly called 911, and Shalayma was taken to the Thrombectomy Stroke Center at Health First’s Holmes Regional Medical Center. It’s where EMS in Brevard County are trained to go when patients are suffering a large-vessel occlusion (LVO).

Armed with artificial intelligence-based software known as Viz LVO, the stroke team at Health First was ready for Shalayma. The AI tool is integrated into the health system’s CT brain perfusion studies, and the on-call stroke physicians get notifications to review 3D brain and vascular images on their phones. This shortens the “door-to-needle” time between when a patient arrives and when life-saving surgery begins by an astounding 66 minutes on average.

Shalayma underwent a thrombectomy to remove the blood clot within minutes, not hours. Her speech, facial expressions, and movement are almost totally recovered because of this rapid life-saving treatment. Her father, who suffered several strokes before succumbing to one at age 70, lost all movement.

"When I compare our outcomes, it doesn’t even feel like the same thing,” she says. She’s grateful she can be here to watch her son grow up and live her life to the fullest."