LESLIE, EYEWITNESS NEWS.
(HE)
NOW AT FIVE -- SURVIVING A
STROKE.
IT'S A POTENIALLY
LIFE-THREATENING DISEASE -- WE
OFTEN ASSOCIATE WITH *OLDER
PEOPLE.
(MM)
BUT WE'VE LEARNED----- IT'S
BECOMING MORE COMMON AMONG
***YOUNG PEOPLE.
AS SOME OF YOU MAY KNOW....
LAST OCTOBER --- THAT SIX-LETTER
WORD TOOK ON ----A WHOLE NEW
MEANING FOR ONE OF OUR OWN.
"There's this fear that no one
can prepare you for because the
way I look at it is I'm 27 years
old and I had a stroke."
(MM)
NOW.... MORE THAN 4 MONTHS LATER
-- CAROLINE IS SHARING HER
STORY... WITH THE HOPE ----IT
CAN HELP OTHERS.
(HE)
IT'S A STORY YOU'LL SEE ONLY ON
EYEWITNESS NEWS.
(CG)
MIKE AND SHANNON --
IT WAS THE MOST EXCITING TIME OF
OUR LIVES.
WE HAD JUST GOTTEN MARRIED....
CAME HOME FROM OUR HONEYMOON....
AND THEN TRAGEDY STRUCK.
IT WAS 135 DAYS AGO I HAD MY
STROKE.
I THROW OUT A RANDOM NUMBER LIKE
THAT ---- TO REMIND MYSELF TIME
REALLY DOES HEAL.
WHAT I'VE LEARNED THROUGH MY
RECOVERY ---- IS THAT SOMETIMES
THE EMOTIONAL JOURNEY BACK TO
YOU --- CAN BE JUST AS HARD AS
THE PHYSICAL ONE.
HERE IS MY STORY.
OUR LIVES ARE DEFINED BY
MOMENTS.
"I Travis take you Caroline to
be my wife."
"I Caroline take you Travis to
be my husband."
"I promise to be faithful to
you..."
"In good times and in bad"
"In sickness and in health."
it was just before 11:30 that
morning. I was taking a pan from
the stove and putting it in the
dishwasher and I was talking to
travis and telling him a story.
something went wrong and she
went quiet. and so I asked her,
'hey, what's going on.' and when
she came back up, she was
slurring her speech and shaking.
my vision was lost. everything
went black. what I didn't
realize in that moment is that
travis had noticed the left side
of my face was dropping.
at that point I realized
something was really really
wrong. so I called 911.
within about 30 seconds, we
heard the ambulance come down
the street. he went outside to
get the first responders. by the
time they got back in, I had
stood up. I was talking to
myself, I was pacing back and
forth. I had jumped up onto the
stretcher and they carried me
out the door and I talked to
them the entire ride to norwood
hospital.
as I sat there and waited, I at
one point heard a doctor come in
and said to the nurses area 'we
need a room, we need to make
room. we have a 27 year old
female who is having a stroke.'
that's when the doctor came in
and he said to me 'he hun. we
just talked to your husband. he
knows. you've had a stroke. and
we need to get this cat scan
done right away because we need
to make sure your corrated
arteries aren't compromised.'
i've never been so scared. we've
been married for a week and a
half and all of a sudden
everything changes.
finally around 11:30 that night
we were taken by ambulance from
norwood hospital to boston
medical center.
I feel like once we got up to
BMC, that's where the search for
answers really began.
all you want is an answer as to
what on earth happened and is
she going to be okay.
they did all the bloodwork. they
checked my heart and it was
fine. they eventually did a
thorough check of my brain to
make sure there was nothing
wrong with the arteries in my
brain and once again I was
clear. we stayed in the hospital
for four days, and that friday
afternoon, we were able to go
home. and when we got
discharged, they handed me this
piece of paper. tells you
everything you need to know if
you physically hurt during my
recovery. they don't give you a
piece of paper to tell you what
happens when you emotionally
hurt during that time. no one
warned me that when I walked th
rough my apartment door and I
was smiling because I was so
happy to be home, that I would
also relive the moment I was
taken out on a stretcher.
there's not a piece of paper
that tells you it's okay to fall
asleep every night. you don't
have to be afraid you're not
going to wake up the next
morning. because I would lay in
bed and be exhausted because my
brain hurt so bad and I wouldn't
want to fall asleep because I
was afraid travis was going to
wake up in the morning and I was
going to be dead.
I think we both consider
ourselves very lucky because it
was not nearly as bad as it
could have been. there has been
very few things that have made
me happier than when caroline
got back to work.
"you get a new lease on life and
a new perspective in living your
life. moments are richer with
people. the good moments are far
better than they were before.
Tomorrow isn't a guarantee. you
don't know how many more moments
you have. So, that's what I plan
to do with this moving forward
is just be here, because I can
be here."
(CG)
LIFE AFTER STROKE IS MUCH
DIFFERENT THAN IT WAS BEFORE.
THERE ARE FAR MORE DOCTORS
APPOINTMENTS...WEEKLY BLOOD
WORK.
BUT I FEEL SO LUCKY TO BE IN THE
SHAPE I'M IN RIGHT NOW.
***BANTER***
(HE)
NOW AT 6 --- SURVIVING A STROKE.
AT FIVE --
CAROLINE GOGGIN AND HER HUSBAND
DETAILED THE DAY THEIR LIVES
FOREVER CHANGED.
IT WAS OCTOBER 8TH OF LAST YEAR.
THE DAY CAROLINE - SUFFERED A
STROKE.
(MM)
WHAT SOME OF YOU AT HOME-----
MIGHT BE WONDERING --- IS HOW
COULD THAT HAVE HAPPENED?
TONIGHT, WE'RE HEARING FROM
CAROLINE'S NEUROLOGIST...
WHO EXPLAINS HER PARTICULAR
CASE... AND SHARES WHAT PEOPLE
***OF ALL AGES*** NEED TO KNOW
ABOUT STROKE.
CAROLINE IS HERE IN STUDIO WITH
MORE.
(CG)
MIKE AND SHANNON --
WHEN I SHARED MY STORY ON SOCIAL
MEDIA ---- THE INITIAL REACTION
I GOT FROM MOST PEOPLE WAS:
"HOW COULD A 27 YEAR OLD HAVE A
STROKE?"
WELL, IN THE 20-16 JOURNAL OF
THE AMERICAN HEART ASSOCIATION
...
RESEARCHERS FOUND THAT BETWEEN
2000 AND 2010 ---
HOSPITALIZATIONS FOR ISCHEMIC
STROKE, WHICH IS THE MOST COMMON
TYPE, DROPPED NEARLY 20 PERCENT
OVERALL.
BUT GET THIS ---
THAT RESEARCH ALSO FOUND THAT
AMONG PEOPLE .... AGES 25 TO
44.... THERE WAS A 44 PERCENT
INCREASE IN HOSPITALIZATIONS FOR
STROKE.
WE WERE STUNNED.
"foxboro engine 24. Mansfield
rescue 35. Respond for a female
party possible stroke."
A STROKE AT 27 YEARS OLD.
"these last 9 days have been the
scariest of our lives..."
AS I SPENT SIX WEEKS AT HOME
RECOVERING...
ONE QUESTION LINGERED: HOW COULD
THIS HAVE HAPPENED?
"I think it's really important
to realize stroke strikes
anybody, at any age. whether
you're male or female. no matter
what your age is or your
underlying risk factors are."
THIS IS DOCTOR HUGO APRICIO.
HE'S MY NEUROLOGIST AT BOSTON
MEDICAL CENTER, WHERE I
RECOVERED FROM MY STROKE LAST
OCTOBER.
"for you, it was some of the
classic symptoms. facial
weakness and arm weakeness. and
then what likely happened is one
of the arteries in brain that
controls motor functions in the
arm and the face became either
fully or partially occulded."
MY CAT SCAN --- DONE WITHIN AN
HOUR OF MY INITIAL SYMPTOMS ---
SHOWS THE CLOT THAT BLOCKED OFF
BLOOD FLOW ... TO A PORTION OF
THE RIGHT SIDE OF MY BRAIN.
"there is an area here that's
kind of tightened that's not
over here. this area is where we
presume the clot had lodged."
IF YOU LOOK AT THE MRI... IT
SHOWS THE STROKE ITSELF.
"you can see that it's more
hyper intense, the signal. that
indicated to the doctors there
was an acute stroke."
FOR A WEEK -- I WAS MONITORED AT
BMC.
FOUR MONTHS LATER ---- DOCTOR
APRICIO IS STILL LOOKING INTO
THE CAUSE OF MY STROKE..
AS HE SAYS THE RESEARCH INTO
STROKES IN YOUNGER PEOPLE IS
REALLY RAMPING UP.
"we've seen it over the years
that rates of stroke have been
declining in both older and
younger folks because of better
risk factor control. But, we
have noticed that it may be
increasing in younger folks, the
rates of stroke."
DOCTOR APIRICIO SAYS THE REASON
WHY --- ISN'T CLEAR YET.
HE SAYS RESEARCH SUGGESTS HIGH
BLOOD PRESSURE --- DIABETES ---
OBESITY --- AND THE OPIOID
EPIDEMIC --- COULD BE
CONTRIBUTING.
"in my case, I'm 27 healthy low
blood pressure. I don't have any
of those symptoms. Do you guys
see that?"
"yes, certainly we do. usually
when patients present without
the typical risk factors like
high blood pressure, smoking or
diabetes, usually that implies
its one of the more rare causes
of stroke."
LIKE A HEART DEFECT --- OR A
CLOTTING DISORDER.
BOTH OF WHICH I WAS CHECKED FOR.
"it's great the public health
message is getting out there,
but it's cocnerning people are
still fairly unaware of stroke
symptoms."
"when it comes to recognizing
the signs of a stroke, think
fast. f is for face, a is for
arms, s is for speech, and t is
for time. time is key."
"you could have symptoms like
vertigo, trouble walking,
partial loss of your vision.
symptoms a lot of people don't
realize are associated with a
stroke."
ACCORDING TO THE CDC ---
SOMEONE IN THE U-S HAS A STROKE
EVERY 40 SECONDS.
EVERY 4 MINUTES --- SOMEONE DIES
OF ONE.
FOR THOSE WHO DO RECOVER -- THEY
DO SO .... WITHOUT PART OF THEIR
BRAIN.
"it doesn't recover. it's
irreversibly or pemanently
injured. but, the brain is
really remarkable, especially in
younger. the brain can
recuperate in terms of
establishing connections to
other parts of the brain."
(CG)
THAT WAS PROBABLY THE MOST
JARRING THING FOR US TO HEAR IN
THE HOSPITAL..
THAT THE PART OF MY BRAIN
IMPACTED BY THE STROKE --- IS
PERMANENTLY DAMAGED.
(HE)
COMING UP TONIGHT AT 10 AND
11...
CAROLINE INTRODUCES YOU TO TWO
OTHER YOUNG STROKE SURVIVORS IN
RHODE ISLAND.
ONE OF THEM --- HAD A STROKE AT
JUST ***12 YEARS OLD.
(MM)
THEIR STORIES --- AND THE WAYS