When Melissa McCann (left) suffered a stroke in 2007, her twin sister, Terry Blanchard, helped her make a full recovery. McCann is now back to work as a flight nurse with Life Flight at the Eastern Maine Medical Center in Bangor.
When Melissa McCann (left) suffered a stroke in 2007, her twin sister, Terry Blanchard, helped her make a full recovery. McCann is now back to work as a flight nurse with Life Flight at the Eastern Maine Medical Center in Bangor.
Most people (including a lot of doctors) think of a stroke as something that happens to old people. But the rate is increasing among those in their 50s, 40s and even younger.
In one recent 10-year period, the rate of strokes in Americans younger than 55 went up 84 percent among whites and 54 percent among blacks. One in 5 strokes now occurs in adults 20 to 55 years old up from 1 in 8 in the mid-1990s.
These are people like Melissa McCann, a nurse in Maine who spends most days on a helicopter, accompanying sick and injured patients to a distant hospital.
McCann had a stroke at age 37. It began with a weird sensation.
"I had a very euphoric feeling," she tells Shots. "It's hard to explain, but everything felt very cartoon-ish to me. It felt very bizarre."
Then she found she couldn't dial the number to respond to a page. Light began to hurt her eyes. She couldn't speak. Because she's a nurse, she realized she was having a stroke.
Doctors think an abnormal hole between the two upper chambers of McCann's heart allowed a blood clot to move to her brain and cause her stroke.
Doctors think an abnormal hole between the two upper chambers of McCann's heart allowed a blood clot to move to her brain and cause her stroke.
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As Stroke Risk Rises Among Younger Adults, So Does Early Death