Teacher, 28, Started Slurring Her Words in Class. She Learned She Was Having a Stroke

[appalachiablue]

- 2nd Chapter at Life for Young Stroke Patient at Mount Sinai, Areti Boukas. May 12, 2022.
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- TODAY, May 24, 2022.

In January, Areti Boukas was teaching her special education class when she tried saying numerator — a word she often says. At first, she thought it sounded odd because she had said it so many times. But then she realized she was slurring. “I stood up and felt dizzy and it was a really weird dizzy feeling,” the 28-year-old teacher from Queens, NY told TODAY. “I was trying to drink water and it wasn’t going away and I felt really strange.”She started crying as someone ran for the nurse.

“My whole left side of my body was paralyzed. I couldn’t feel anything on the left half, arms, legs, toes. My face had drooped,” she said. “I remember trying to poke my left side with my right hand and I felt nothing.” Her co-workers suspected she was having a stroke and their quick action made a difference. “I’m just really thankful that I got (to the hospital) so quickly,” she said. “I had never heard of a young person having a stroke.”

Slurring, dizziness, and paralysis: While Boukas felt confused by what was happening, her co-workers knew she needed immediately medical attention because she was having a stroke. Even after she realized she couldn’t feel her left side, she still tried standing. “Since my leg wasn’t working, I went down and they caught me and put me in the chair and carried me down three flights of stairs to the ambulance,” Boukas explained. “Our assistant principal came with me and she was telling me that it was going to be OK."

While Boukas knew about stroke, she had no idea that it could happen to someone like her. “I’m young and healthy and I eat right and exercise — you know all the things that they say you should do,” she said. “I didn’t think (stroke) applied to me.” The paramedics alerted the hospital, which “activated their stroke team.” “I remember them just poking anything on the left side of my body,” she said. “I felt nothing with pens, their fingers. They were lifting my leg and watching fall and lifting my arm over my face and watching it go right down like I couldn’t stop it from hitting me.”

Someone informed her that she was having a stroke and she said nothing. She couldn’t believe it. Doctors gave her a clot-busting drug and she underwent an endovascular thrombectomy to remove the clot...

- Read More,
https://www.msn.com/en-us/health/medical/teacher-28-started-slurring-her-words-in-class-she-learned-she-was-having-a-stroke/ar-AAXEWB9

Or, TODAY's Link,
https://www.today.com/health/health/stroke-symptoms-teacher-28-started-slurring-words-class-felt-dizzy-rcna30146
_________________
- According to the American Heart association the signs of stroke spell out FAST:

F: Facial drooping
A: Arm weakness
S: Slurred speech or difficulty speaking
T: Time equals brain, the faster to the hospital, the more brain saved

[Tetrachloride]

1. 2 blood clots in my family this past 15 months.

Diet is important

[appalachiablue]

2. Sorry to hear that, hope they're recovering ok. Diet

and lifestyle play a significant role which more people need to know. Unknown early irregularities like this young woman had also contribute.

[Tetrachloride]

3. One, yes. ty

[Skittles]

4. I can't get that link to work

scary, especially considering how young she is

[appalachiablue]

12. Try this one, direct from TODAY. Above is MSN/Microsoft News:

https://www.today.com/health/health/stroke-symptoms-teacher-28-started-slurring-words-class-felt-dizzy-rcna30146

[Traildogbob]

5. How many

Of these strokes and clots can be traced to long term Covid?

[Rebl2]

6. Have a friend

who had a friend whose daughter had Covid and she died from a stroke due to that Covid. She had started to get better, then got worse again and had the stroke. She was only 25.
I have read in the past that children can have strokes. I am sure it’s rare though.

[Traildogbob]

7. So sad

25😢. And No masks required to prevent infecting others with possible death sentence. Freedom……to kill others. Sorry for your friends lose. Possibly did not need to happen.

[Rebl2]

9. I forgot to add

this was before Covid vaccinations started for the public.

[Traildogbob]

11. 💔💔

[appalachiablue]

15. Tragic, so sorry.

[appalachiablue]

13. She had a PFO, a hole in her heart per the article. But Covid

is causing strokes as well and more health issues.
______
.. Stroke in young people: When stroke patients are younger and do not have traditional risk factors, doctors run tests to determine what caused it.

> In Boukas’ case, she learned she had a patent foramen ovale (PFO), which is a hole in her heart.

“When the babies are in the womb the lungs are not … functional so there has to be a conduit for the blood to travel from the right to left side,” Dr. Sahil Khera, interventional director of the Structural Heart Program at Mount Sinai Hospital, told TODAY. “When kids are born, these holes or more specifically tunnel like openings, close off”

But in about 25% to 30% of people, that hole doesn’t close. Most people never know and lead normal healthy lives. But for some, a PFO causes stroke and needs to be repaired. Without repair, clots can pass through the right side of the heart to the left, leading to a stroke.
“In those patients, closure is beneficial,” Khera said. “For the majority of the population, these are benign conduits.”

> Boukas underwent a minimally invasive procedure where Khera inserted a device that closes the hole, which reduced her chance of having another stroke.

“It definitely has profound consequences for the patient because you had a first stroke at a young age and the last thing you want is a second,” he explained. “Anytime a young patient presents with a stroke, they should have a cardiovascular evaluation. That is so imperative. It’s not for the stroke at that time. It’s more for preventing a recurrence if you do find the attributable cause was PFO.”

Returning to the classroom: Boukas had to do physical and occupational therapy and felt surprised, at times, by how long recovery took. “I remember the first time I walked around the block around my house. I was really stubborn and wanted to do it even though I probably shouldn’t have,” she said. “I remember crying on the sidewalk because it was like how could I not walk a block?” Her therapists and doctors kept encouraging her and focusing on all the progress she’s made...

[Traildogbob]

14. Just the thought of a hole

In your heart is incredibly frightening. Hoping she recovers fully and is one of the blessed ones that can carry on normally. Thanks for the education of that condition. Had no idea. And my late wife was an OR nurse and our daughter is a neurotrauma ICU nurse. I know trees and forests, but I’m very uninformed about the human body, even with my surroundings. The wife had a stroke while flighing a second round of cancer, and losing the battle. I hear stroke, and I see the debilitating effects she had.

[appalachiablue]

17. Like you & many others I also think bad things when

I hear 'stroke.' I'm very sorry about your wife. My aunt had a stroke years ago and recovered about 65%. Two years ago, a loved one had a brain rupture from an unknown malformation condition from birth; is alive but fairly seriously impaired. A friend said it was a stroke, so I thought Covid. But no, it was from an 'AVM'- more post # 17.

[Traildogbob]

20. It's amazing

That so many of us are not affected by any one of the many possible illnesses that are out there. And increasing each years. And worse, the poisons legally dumped in our water, air and food. Thankfully we have science to turn to to fight for the ability to survive.

[appalachiablue]

23. Agree about the highly dangerous growth of toxins

in our natural environment, in consumer products and food, everywhere. Yet science continues with advances as you say thank heaven. One day though, esp. with climate change and war we may reach a cliff.. Though I hope not. My fears are for the young.

[Traildogbob]

25. 100 percent

With you. The cliff is near and the edges are breaking off as we race towards it.

[Rebl2]

21. I remember

when I was a child, a boy next door had a hole in his heart (back in the 60’s). Around the age of 10 or 11, his doctors discovered it and went in and fixed it. He moved away not long after that to another state and never knew what happened to him after that.

[appalachiablue]

24. That is wonderful, thanks for an uplifting outcome and story.

[Rebl2]

26. You know

my parents didn’t keep it a secret from me. Guess they didn’t want me to be shocked if something happened to him. This was back in the sixties. We were elementary school age and we played together all the time. He was my best friend-odd thinking about that now-that I, a little girl had a best friend that was a boy. I think about him once in a great while. Wonder what became of him.

[barbtries]

8. Happy she was saved.

When my youngest son was in day care, one day I picked him up and before we got to the car he said, "Ronald was acting strange and had to go to the hospital." I turned around and went straight back to learn that one of his teachers had a stroke while playing basketball with the kids. He didn't make it. He was about 40. My son was right there when he was stricken.

His funeral was in early July 2001 and my son and I attended. Before the end of that month we had buried Bekah, my son's big sister. It was a traumatic month for a 9-year-old.

[appalachiablue]

18. How tragic for the coach and then your family. That's a lot. TC.

[Lettuce Be]

10. Severe sudden headache is also a sign - my husband just had this happen

Massive sudden headache (they call it "Thunderclap headache&quot is likely a stroke. He had a brain bleed (vessel burst) which they said is better than a blood clot but a stroke is a stroke. He's doing well, no long-term effects so he's really lucky.

[appalachiablue]

16. Glad he was one of the lucky ones, truly. A loved one

had a major brain rupture like a stroke during Covid in 2020. But it was from an AVM, arteriovenous malformation in the brain probably from birth. Much damage to speech, one side and mobility even with emergency major surgery and rehab. There was a terrible wait and backlog for care and rehab because of the early phase Covid crisis.
______

- AVM. An abnormal connection between arteries and veins, usually in the brain or spine.
Arteriovenous malformation (AVM) is usually present at birth. The arteries and veins in an arteriovenous malformation can rupture, causing bleeding into the brain or spinal cord.
Symptoms can include headaches and seizures.

Surgery is the most common treatment for brain AVMs. In some cases, a catheter or radiation may be used to close off vessels. Medication may be used to treat headaches and seizures.
Rare
Fewer than 200,000 US cases per year

[Rebl2]

22. Is that like

an aneurysm?