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Sarah PorterA young woman who suffered her first stroke at the age of 20
Date of Birth: 01.01.1992
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Content:
- A Brush with Death: Sarah's Unlikely Stroke at 20
- Mistaken for Malingering
- A Life-Saving Altercation
- A Second Stroke and a Critical Surgery
- A Challenging Recovery
- Embracing the Future
- Understanding Stroke Risk
A Brush with Death: Sarah's Unlikely Stroke at 20
Twenty-year-old Sarah Potter was enjoying a math class when she suddenly felt a strange sensation. Her classmate's concern was met with laughter, but as she struggled to stand, the right side of her body went numb. Her face contorted into a spasm, and her head throbbed relentlessly.
Mistaken for Malingering
Barely able to make it to her dorm room, Sarah called her parents, who were physicians. Despite describing her symptoms, she was urged to seek medical attention immediately. Still more preoccupied with upcoming exams, Sarah hesitantly arrived at the hospital, where she met her brother. By then, her facial muscles were frozen, and her speech was slurred. Shockingly, the nurse in the emergency room dismissed her symptoms as an attempt to avoid her tests.
"She just didn't believe me," Sarah recalled. "'There's no way you're having a stroke. You're too young. You're just trying to get out of your exams.'"
"It was insanity. And I would've listened to her if my brother hadn't created a scene. I had no idea what was happening. Honestly, it didn't even cross my mind that I could have a stroke at such a young age."
A Life-Saving Altercation
Fortunately, Sarah's brother persisted, and the commotion alerted a doctor to her condition. The physician recognized the gravity of the situation and realized her life was hanging in the balance. Sarah lost memory of the next 24 hours, awakening in the intensive care unit to the news that she had suffered a hemorrhagic stroke.
Despite being otherwise healthy—a non-smoker, an avid exerciser, and a user of estrogen-free birth control—Sarah had a rare mutation causing hypercoagulability. Her surgeon theorized that this abnormality had saved her life by clotting the bleeding in her brain.
A Second Stroke and a Critical Surgery
While still critically ill, Sarah underwent a precautionary operation to remove an arteriovenous malformation (AVM), an abnormal connection between veins and arteries. Four years later, just months shy of her graduation with a degree in health and wellness policy from Columbia University, Sarah suffered a second stroke. Post-gym, she was walking through campus when her vision became distorted.
"I knew right away what was happening," Sarah said. "I had only felt like that once before, when I had my first stroke."
"I walked a couple blocks to the emergency room and walked up to the desk and said, 'Hi, my name is Sarah Porter. I had a stroke four years ago. And I'm having another one right now.'"
An alarmed nurse sounded the alarm, and three or four people immediately attended to Sarah, who quickly underwent a CT scan. Despite her reluctance to enter surgery unless absolutely necessary, Sarah agreed to go under the knife the following week. She underwent an extremely complex and risky procedure to remove the AVM from her brain.
A Challenging Recovery
Released after a few days, Sarah returned home, where her parents helped her with physical therapy, speech recovery, and charting her progress. One day, her eyes swelled shut, which she attributed to "really aggressive physical therapy" that had temporarily increased the pressure in her brain.
Her parents called her doctor just to be safe, and he instructed them to rush her to a surgical center five hours away.
A massive snowstorm raged that evening. "My dad told me that was one of the hardest days of his life," Sarah recalled. "He was trying to drive fast, but he couldn't really see with all the white. And he was just worried about me."
At the facility, Sarah underwent tests that revealed she had developed a severe and rare brain infection that had followed the earlier surgery.
"That was the only time I really cried," Sarah said. "The doctor said I needed to have another surgery, and I knew I wasn't going to graduate with my class anymore."
After the additional surgery, doctors assured Sarah that she would never suffer another AVM-related stroke.
Embracing the Future
Today, Sarah experiences some lingering effects, including minor immobility on one side of her right face. However, these "little things" are only noticeable to her and her parents.
Sarah remains committed to a healthy lifestyle, running five days a week and continuing to use low-estrogen birth control. She is also passionate about helping others who have survived strokes. She recently accepted a position at the new Maine Medical Center's Neurosurgical Center, where she will work alongside the same surgeon who once navigated the "tangle of life-threatening blood vessels" in her brain.
"It's a dream come true," she said. "Honestly, I got goosebumps. It means so much to me."
Understanding Stroke Risk
Risk factors for stroke include age, high blood pressure, smoking, obesity, physical inactivity, diabetes, atrial fibrillation, family history, prior stroke, and transient ischemic attack (TIA).
Approximately three out of four people survive stroke, but many survivors acquire lifelong disabilities. Common impairments include difficulty with walking, communication, eating, and performing everyday tasks.
Both ischemic and hemorrhagic strokes (both potentially fatal) require prompt medical intervention, either surgery or a clot-busting drug known as tPA, within three hours of onset.
