(slow piano music)
- [voiceover] I was driving to work,
had a bruise on my neck that I felt.
I didn't see it and I rubbed it and after I rubbed it
about five seconds later
I felt like I was going to pass out.
I was talking to myself and I was like, What is going on?
As I was driving I couldn't see out of my left eye
and I was driving along the center divide a couple times
and it was like a dream, like you're having this dream,
like something is going on but you can't stop it.
I ended up running off the road.
Finally, somebody had called 911 that I was a drunk driver.
- I remember the call.
It came in as a single vehicle traffic accident.
(sirens and horns blaring)
I remember as we walked up, the vehicle was still on.
He was actively trying to put it into gear.
- [voiceover] He was talking to me on my left window
and I remember I couldn't see him or hear him.
I heard him from my right side
and then I remember saying, Where are you?
and he had to yell at me, Right here!
And I looked over and like, Oh, hey!
- There was kind of a look of confusion on his face.
I asked him if he had been drinking or taking any drugs
and he said no and then I asked him to smile
to see if he had any facial droop.
- [voiceover] I smiled for him and he was like,
"I think you're having a stroke buddy.
We're going to get you some help".
- I immediately saw that he had facial droop.
I called back to my partner that it was a stroke code.
- Part of our stroke protocol, we have EMS pre-notification
when there's a stroke code in route.
They actually send a page saying we're on the way.
- The MICN call, stroke code coming ETA five minutes.
So we knew Stefan was on the way.
- [voiceover] They took me to the hospital and I got there
and there was a sea of doctors that had got the call
that I was coming in.
- So I had gone to work a little early
to get a couple things done and a call comes in
and it's the hospital at UCSD and they said,
Your husband's ok, he's had a stroke.
And I'm thinking that's not ok.
I'll be there in ten minutes.
And I knew my only job was just to drive safe.
- [voiceover] It was actually a really chaotic day
in our emergency rooms.
He was the third stroke code within a few minutes
and when he hit the door it was actually quite obvious to us
that he was suffering a stroke.
And he was paralyzed on the left side of his body.
We transported him to do a CT and a CT angiogram.
We were first able to rule out that there was no blood
in the brain but there was actually a very large clot
sitting on the right side of his brain.
We had already contacted Dr. Khalessi,
our interventional neurosurgeon and we saw the clot on CT.
- The stroke neurologist at UCSD reached out to me by phone
and said they had a young man who was coming in
within the therapeutic window with a confirmed M1 occlusion.
And they thought would benefit from a thrombectomy.
- I get into the emergency room and I tell them
that I'm there to see Stefan and he had had a stroke.
She comes back and says ok they're ready for you
and just so you know there's eight doctors.
They had given us three choices,
the last one was to do an embolectomy.
Go up through his brain and pull the clot out.
I thought well, we're going to go with that one
because that just seems like the quickest way
out of what we're in.
So I go into the waiting room and Dr. Khalessi came out
to me and he said you have every right to expect the best.
- I can tell you, three or five years ago,
it's a very different, difficult conversation
and so I was very, very optimistic in the conversation
with her, that we were going to be able to get her
and her husband a good result and we'd move forward.
- I remember having this, this urge to sit up so bad,
and I asked can I sit up.
I remember them yelling at me, you can't sit up,
I'm in your brain right now.
And shortly after that I had this headache that came
and I went Ow! and he goes,
Yeah, you're going to feel that.
When he was done with the procedure,
he said, ok I'm out of your brain.
You can relax, you did a really good job.
And immediately I start trying to move my hand
trying to move my hand and to me within five minutes
I was moving my hand.
And I was trying to move my foot, move my foot.
I was like, I can move my hand! I can move my foot!
And I heard, we got movement!, they yelled it
and it just, you get overwhelmed and I started crying.
- Usually, they're not quite as spirited and interactive
as Stefan was, the payoff of that though
is when we were able on a single pass to actually open
that artery for him.
We saw the immediate result in terms of the restoration
of movement on the left side of the body and I can tell you
it's a rare and very special privilege
to have that experience and be able to share that
with the patient obviously in real time.
- And he comes back in 20 minutes.
But here he is, he's looking at me,
he's got this light in his eyes, there's magic in the air
and he says he's moving his entire left side.
- It was pretty remarkable because right after moving
the clot we actually saw Stefan moving his hand
and he had immediate recovery of his symptoms.
And only continued to improve after that point,
until the point that he was actually back to normal.
- When they wheeled me out, you could hear the doctors
and the nurses that saw me go in to the operating room
and you could hear this, there's no way.
That's what I hear, no way, that's him?
There's no way that's him. How's that him?
And that's what I was hearing, I was like, oh I must've
been really bad going in.
- I think it was five minutes, they're rolling him back out
of that room and my husband's literally waving
with his left hand. (laughter)
- The fact that he's a young father of two,
made it all the more exceptional.
So I think it was one of the reasons why both myself
and our entire team kind of come to work everyday,
is to be able to make a difference in a case like that.
- I was really happy to hear recently
that he's back to his normal activities and he's able
to work 100 percent of his job.
Blowdrying without any difficulties,
which was actually a problem at the very beginning,
so he's really back to his normal life which I'm happy
to hear about.
- I'm so thankful for this procedure,
that UCSD was able to offer me and just thankful
that I was able to have the chance
so I could spend my life with my family.
My son, daughter, wife, parents and everybody.
Thank you very much.
- I'm so glad to hear that Stefan is doing so well
and that he's surfing again.
(upbeat music)
- [voiceover] I'd like to thank
the American Stroke Association and Medtronic
for their commitment to ending stroke.
- [voiceover] Remember to learn how to spot a stroke FAST.
F for face drooping.
A for arm weakness.
S for speech difficulty.
T for it's time to call 911.