[ Silence ]
>> Cory Weissman has dribbled a basketball for as long as he can remember.
>> Cory Weissman: Basketball's always been my life.
There's some sort of satisfaction that I got just having the ball in my hands.
>> Just from infant or soon thereafter he just always had to have a ball in his hands.
>> Tina: I was looking back at pictures, still pictures that there was a basketball in every
picture and that I did not put there.
>> At Jackson Memorial High School in New Jersey, Cory made an amazing record.
He scored more than 1,000 points.
>> Cory Weissman: Scoring 1,000 points was just an incredible achievement for me.
All the hours of hard work that I put in, it was just a symbol of, you know, all of
my hard work paying off.
>> Gettysburg College knew Cory was a gifted player and wanted him to shoot baskets for
the Bullets.
>> We needed kids who can dribble, pass, and shoot.
And he has the ability to do those things plus score.
>> Cory played in 3 games his freshman year.
After the season was over, Cory continued to train.
Four years ago, he was lifting weights with his buddy, Brendan [phonetic].
>> Cory Weissman: I was in the middle of a set and of workout and all of a sudden I just
got a piercing headache.
He saw that I didn't look so good and I was starting to get dizzy.
And I guess my face was a little bit pale and he said, you know, let's -- why don't
we just go outside?
Let's go to the hallway, get some water.
You know see if you feel a little bit better.
>> Brendan took Cory to the athletic training room to get help.
>> Cory Weissman: And about halfway there, I started to stumble and my left leg started
to drag on the floor.
>> As he came in, I went to put my hand behind his back to help walk him in and he almost
went limp and needed assistance.
I asked Cory to -- I was on his left side and asked him to squeeze my hand and he was
unable to squeeze my hand with his left hand but reached across with his right to try to
squeeze my hand with his right hand.
And that's when we asked him to smile and when he did smile it was just a lopsided smile
where only the right side went up and that's when we knew he was most likely having a stroke.
>> Cory's parents quickly found out the news.
>> Tina: A nurse takes the phone and says Mrs. Weissman this is the nurse.
Your son is in very serious condition.
I don't know if they said critical.
I don't remember the words.
He had a subarachnoid hemorrhage.
He had a bleed in his brain and he's really, really sick.
>> Tina, my wife, called me.
I was working about an hour away from him and she was close to hysterics.
And said something happened to Cory.
Told me in brief what she knew that he had apparently had a stroke and it seemed so unreal.
You know I really couldn't even digest it.
>> They packed their bags and made the 3 hour trip from New Jersey to Penn State Hershey
Stroke Center.
>> The weather was awful.
I was just very determined to get there as quickly as we could to see what was going
on.
>> Tina: Let me get there and see him alive.
[Music] It's all I could think about.
Let me just get there and see him alive.
>> Dr. Cockroft: When he came into the hospital, he was awake and alert but it was clear that
he had had a stroke.
He was very weak on his left side.
His face was weak and his left arm and left leg were weak.
>> Tina: And then we got to the hospital, and coach met us downstairs in the parking
lot.
And walked with us upstairs to this room of -- I didn't know what to expect.
>> This was a kid that was always so healthy and vibrant.
I didn't believe until I saw him there at the hospital in the critical care unit laying
there not being able to move and barely being able to speak.
And then it hits you, you know --
>> Doctors explained Cory's condition.
>> Dr. Cockroft: The scans showed that he had bleeding into his brain and the bleeding
was located in the frontal lobe on the right side.
What caused his bleeding was -- turned out to be a blood vessel malformation, an arteriovenous
malformation or AVM and this is an abnormal tangled blood vessels where the arteries are
directly feeding into the veins and creates a tangle of vessels like this.
And it looks like a can of worms or a bowl of spaghetti.
And this creates weak points in the vessels which can lead to bleeding, can lead to a
stroke that Cory had.
>> Tina: He showed us the angiogram.
On the screen completely showed us where his brain, showed us the bleeding.
>> Dr. Cockroft explained the procedure to initially treat the AVM.
>> Dr. Cockroft: The procedure that I personally did was called an embolization of his AVM
and what that involves is taking a very small catheter about the size of a thin piece of
spaghetti and putting it directly into one of these arteries that's feeding tangle and
injecting through that a liquid glue like substance which then causes these vessels
to seal up or plug up.
[Music]
>> It worked.
After about 5 days, doctors knew Cory would get better.
So did his parents.
[Music]
>> Tina: I'll never forget.
I don't know what day it was but I will never forget the day he made a joke and it was like,
so reassuring.
It was like my son's alive.
He's like there.
>> Cory spent 12 days at the Med Center and was more than ready to go a rehab center in
New Jersey.
>> Cory Weissman: My goal from the time that I was fully awake in the hospital was to play
basketball again, to get back out onto the court.
That was my motivation.
That's what drove me to work hard.
>> When he left Hershey, he could barely sit up by himself.
That's how weak he was.
They had him up the next day walking.
That is being held up in a parallel bar.
>> Tina: Very quickly, he started to show me look ma, I can do this.
You know I can do this.
I can move my elbow.
Like very small increments but each day or every other day, he showed me something else
he was able to do.
>> Cory Weissman: I was wheeled in there on a stretcher and I couldn't move on the left
side of my body and by the time I left a month later, I was walking with a cane, with a very
severe limp and still a lot of motor deficits but I walked out of there which was a goal
of mine.
[Music] [Silence]