[MUSIC]
>> Nick and I used to walk
all the time but after I got stroke,
I couldn't walk for 10 minutes.
It's just confusing and just so impossible
to really just say what I'm feeling.
>> What do you want?
>> No, you go.
>> It was a regular night.
Sam had had some symptoms like
the migraine stuff beforehand but nothing alarming.
>> I dropped the glass of wine and I said something,
and I was dizzy and confused and I just started laughing.
>> When I turned around and looked at Sam,
I could clearly see right side of her face was drooping,
so I call my sister who's
a PA and she was just like call an ambulance.
>> I first met Sam when I was
the on-call stroke neurologist the
night that she experienced the symptoms of stroke.
Even though she is quite young and
didn't have typical stroke risk factors,
they made the brave call to call 911 and have
Sam transported to the local hospital where
the Emergency Physicians reached
out to us immediately so that we could
administer that time sensitive medication called TPA.
From there, we recognized that she had the type of stroke that
could benefit from a large vessel surgery,
so she was flown with a helicopter to come to Johns Hopkins
for that time-sensitive treatment and underwent it beautifully.
>> After my surgery,
my recovery began immediately.
I wasn't able to speak,
so the nurses and the therapist,
the speech occupational and physical therapist just
were all on top of everything.
I start to learn yes or no and then I learned I love you,
so I repeated for Nick and my family, I love you.
>> There were times in those early moments where
I just thought she could be there for weeks,
or who knows when Sam will be home.
However, as the days went on,
the time frame shortened.
It was like, we got her out of
the ICU much faster than we thought.
Her recovery is going a lot faster than we thought,
and so thankfully,
she was able to get out on Friday
which was actually our anniversary of our marriage,
so that was a nice thing that happened.
>> For our anniversary,
we do our vows and I couldn't say them,
so Nick had to say my vows but I just felt like that moment,
you are my rock.
>> But this year you did your vows.
>> Yes.
>> Hi Sam, it's so great to see you.
>> Thanks.
>> You look absolutely terrific.
>> Thanks.
>> We are so happy about how well you're doing Sam,
and I know it's unbelievable to
even process that this has happened.
But you have come through it like a star, I would say.
>> Thanks. I practice a lot,
but I still have [inaudible] and I still have [inaudible]
But I can't thank you enough and my family,
my friends, you just stood by me.
>> Thanks for saying that, Sam.
It's a joy to see you.
I think you did everything right in terms of
helping your brain heal after we got
a little jump-start of your treatment after the stroke.
You should be proud of yourself.