As summer approaches, Sydney Priest is looking forward to one of her favorite activities — wakeboarding. For the 28-year-old medical student, it’s an accomplishment to get back on the board after she was treated for a massive stroke just more than two years ago at University of Missouri Health Care in Columbia, Missouri.
On Jan. 26, 2016, Priest had finished morning classes at the Kirksville College of Osteopathic Medicine and was relaxing alone in her apartment. Hours later, Priest found herself in a neuroangiography suite at University Hospital in Columbia, undergoing life-saving measures for a rare and devastating form of stroke.
“My day was completely normal, just like any other day at school,” Priest said. “All of a sudden, I felt dizzy, couldn’t speak, began to vomit and I lost control of the right side of my body. We hadn’t gotten to the lecture on stroke symptoms in class yet, so I had no idea what was going on.”
A stroke occurs when blood supply to the brain is interrupted or drastically reduced, depriving the brain of oxygen and nutrients. The longer a stroke goes untreated, the greater the potential for brain damage and disability. And stroke doesn’t just affect older people; between 2000 and 2010, there was a 44 percent increase in the rate of stroke among people 25 to 44 years old, according to the Journal of the American Medical Association.
Obesity, high blood pressure, high cholesterol and diabetes are all major risk factors for stroke. But younger people should also be aware of other potential causes.
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0 -> Sydney Priest knew her calling at a young
age -- to help children with heart problems.
5.74 -> As a determined medical student, Sydney’s
goal was in sight….until her life suddenly
10.77 -> took a turn.
11.77 -> “I was so weak at that point.
13.349 -> I was gradually losing function of my legs.”
16.41 -> A helicopter rushed her to MU Health Care’s
level one stroke center for specialized care,
23.25 -> after friends found her unconscious.
25.269 -> It turned out—at just 25—Sydney suffered
a stroke.
29.75 -> “I’m a very healthy, active person and
so it’s definitely not something you would
33.95 -> associate with strokes.”
34.95 -> A stroke specialist removed a blood clot longer
than an inch from Sydney’s brainstem.
40.21 -> Doctor Brandi French was part of the care
team.
42.69 -> She sees stroke patients of all ages, but
says the young ones never think it could happen
47.969 -> to them.
48.969 -> “But that’s not true.
50.42 -> I mean certainly in older people you look
at the high blood pressure, diabetes, high
55.23 -> cholesterol, certain heart abnormalities,
but we’re seeing stroke more and more in
58.66 -> younger and younger patients.”
60.41 -> Those YOUNGER stroke victims…often have
an underlying health issue.
64.72 -> In Sydney’s case…a congenital heart block
likely led to her stroke.
69.01 -> Now this medical student couldn’t talk or
get up without her nurses’ help.
73.6 -> “They thought I would be wheelchair bound
probably for the rest of my life.”
78.28 -> She pushed through physical therapy…and
eventually she could speak again…
83.13 -> “The first word I said was mom.”
…and WALKED back into University Hospital
87.799 -> four months after the stroke to thank her
doctors and nurses for saving her life.
94.12 -> The stroke forced Sidney to repeat her first
year in medical school, but it also strengthened
99.15 -> her resolve, only now she’s studying to
become a rehabilitation doctor….to help
104.31 -> others overcome what she endured.
106.549 -> “I hope to be an inspiration to them.”
109.38 -> An inspiration--and proof life can bloom again.
115.1 -> From the University of Missouri, I’m Paula
Morehouse
