Vim & Vigor - Winter 2010 - Community Healthcare - (Page 4)

Stroke of TIA: Getting to the heart of the matter Luck By ElisE sims A few weeks later he had an appointment with cardiologist Arvind Gandhi, M.D., on staff at Community Hospital in Munster and St. Catherine Hospital in East Chicago. Johnson discovered that a cardiac condition called a patent foramen ovale (PFO) had triggered his stroke. It’s the same cardiac defect that Poison rocker and Celebrity Apprentice winner Bret Michaels was diagnosed with following a brain hemorrhage and stroke. A Silent threAt A PFO is a common heart disorder that often goes unnoticed from birth. The heart is divided into four separate chambers. The upper chambers, or atria, are divided by a wall called the atrial septum, Gandhi explains. “A PFO is a hole in this atrial septum caused by incomplete growth of that wall after birth,” he says. “With the PFO, blood flows abnormally through this hole and once the patient has had one event, another is likely to follow.” While the PFO itself does not cause a stroke, its presence can be a pathway for a stroke to occur by allowing blood to flow from the veins to the arteries without going through the lungs first. If this debris goes to the arterial circulation, it can lodge in an artery serving the brain, heart or other major organ. When a clot lodges in the brain, a stroke occurs. If the effects of the stroke last less than 24 hours, as in Johnson’s case, the stroke is called a transient ischemic attack (TIA). Johnson displayed classic TIA symptoms: sudden weakness, numbness or paralysis of the face, arm or leg, especially on one side; loss of speech or trouble talking; trouble walking; and unexplained dizziness or loss of balance. Other symptoms can include sudden loss of vision, particularly in one eye; and a sudden, severe headache. A fter working a 3 to 11 p.m. shift, Hammond resident Larry Johnson was spending the wee hours of the morning checking e-mail on his computer. About 3 a.m. when he tried to grab the mouse to log off, he couldn’t. “I knew something was wrong,” Johnson says. “I’m right-handed, but had to grab the mouse with my left hand; my entire right side had shut down.” What the 45-year-old Johnson didn’t realize was that he was suffering a stroke. “It’s a miracle I’m here today to talk about it,” Johnson says. Even though Johnson lives one-half block from a hospital, he didn’t go there; instead, he went straight to bed thinking the numbness would go away. When he was unable to walk to the bathroom after getting out of bed later that morning, his girlfriend immediately called an ambulance. On the way, the EMT asked Johnson the same question three times. He thought he was responding, but no words were coming out of his mouth. At the hospital, Johnson can’t recall much, but does remember familiar faces at his bedside and hands pumping his chest. “All of a sudden, I woke up,” Johnson says. “I raised my arms. It was amazing. I could open and shut my right fist. It was tingling at first, but then it was fine. My ability to speak came back, too.” Johnson was prescribed blood thinning medication, sent home and told to follow up with a specialist to help determine how the stroke occurred and what could be done to prevent another. Hammond resident Larry Johnson has regained full movement on his right side and is back to doing all the things he loves outdoors after undergoing a procedure to patch the hole in his heart. 4 Vim & Vigor • W IN TER 2 010

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Vim & Vigor - Winter 2010 - Community Healthcare

Vim & Vigor - Winter 2010 - Community Healthcare
Contents
Community Message
Community Briefs
Special: Stroke of Luck
Healing Heroes from the Inside Out
A Step Ahead of PAD
Smart Moves
Miss Information
Stroke Sense
Gut Feelings
The Scoop on Stress
The Faces of Skin Cancer
Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark
A Natural Dilemma
17 Reasons to Work in Healthcare
Spotlight on St. Catherine Hospital
Spotlight on St. Mary Medical Center
Spotlight on Community Hospital
Hospitals Unite

Vim & Vigor - Winter 2010 - Community Healthcare