I woke up in the morning with a sharp pain in my leg and I could not stand up. Finally when I
was able to walk again I went down to my mom's room and said in a joking way like I feel like
I have a blood clot in my leg and so she gets concerned and I’m just like I’m kidding like
it hurts and then went back got ready for school and then we were in my geometry class and
I was trying to stand up and I couldn't and I was trying to keep my left hand up onto
the table just to set it somewhere because it was just drooping and I couldn't move it and
I was starting to get emotional at that point I said I feel like I’m having a stroke.
We were dispatched by 9-1-1 to Boyne Falls community schools for a 14 year old
that could not move her side. The ambulance came in shortly right behind me
and when he came in he picked up her arm and it fell right back down.
Then it was like oh something's very wrong with my daughter. I’ve been a paramedic since
2004 I’ve been doing EMS since 1997 and I’ve never witnessed the pediatric stroke.
The ambulance open and they transport her in it's just like a whirlwind you
go here they go there and the emotions are running pretty high at that moment.
One of our pediatric neurologists uh doctor Krueger received a call from Mclaren Petoskey saying
they had a child who maybe had some stroke-like symptoms we had scans that indicated that the
right middle cerebral artery was blocked in her brain. We lost a child two and a half years ago
it was kind of scary moment to think yeah like can't lose another child. I was like
god you can't take two of my kids from me it's like it's a scary moment.
Within 15 minutes of coming to the hospital she was rushed to the surgery. The pediatric intensive
care unit doctor and the neurologist whisked her away to our siemens artist q room where we did the
thrombectomy procedure. We're able to successfully retrieve the clot and restore blood flow to near
normal to the right side of her brain and for her we did that entire procedure in about 15 minutes.
We were sitting there and praying and holding each other and just waiting for the news and the news
was getting better at this point. We did see that she had a small blood clot in a vein in her leg
and that she had had a hole in her heart that was pushing blood across
her heart so we believe that she had a clot break off from her leg cross over her heart
and likely went up into her brain and caused her stroke. When we left the hospital the doctors said
live as normal as you can her mother was a little more scared that you know should you be doing that
are you sure are you okay I watched her sleep I watched her breathe. It was kind
of like watching a newborn again. We also had a surgery to close the hole in the heart and the
surgery was performed on valentine's day which is a perfect day to fix a broken heart in my opinion.
Pediatric stroke is actually quite rare and for stroke in general so much depends on how quickly
people get to us and how quickly we're able to help you know time is brain that really means
something because when you get to us we can help you. Strokes do happen in young people and it's
very important to take those symptoms seriously because the outcome could have been much worse.
I learned so many things from having a stroke at 14 and in my case time saved me.