Medical Monday: Surving Strokes
By: Kyna Grigsby
Updated: March 31, 2009
A Texas artist and author has a story to share that could save your life. Its a lesson about recognizing the symptoms of a stroke -- and the importance of the first *three* hours after it happens."It started going like up my hand, numb, up to the side of my face," recalls Sharron Connelly.
Sharron Connelly was at home in her art studio when she realized she was having a stroke.
Emergency room doctors started sharron on a clot busting drug - a drug thats only effective if its given in the first few hours after a stroke. Sharron feared shed die -- and if she survived she worried the stroke would steal her memory -- her motor skills -- or her speech: important things for this author and painter -- whos working on a movie script about Leonardo Da Vinci.
"I kept saying - my brain - I cant let anything happen to my brain," recalls Connelly. "Ive got all this stuff about Leonardo and all these secrets."
Today, Sharon can paint and talk ahd she still has the details of that movie script in her memory.
"If you can give the medicine quickly you can save all or a lot of it," says Dr. Roger Blair, neurologist.
Recent studies show clot busting drugs may be effective as long as four hours after a stroke in some cases. However, the sooner theyre given the more likely the recovery.
"I dont have any kind of disability from it," said Connelly. "I attribute it to the great work they did."
