Stroke survivors want to raise awareness
It was a typical Wednesday morning in a Boca Raton, Fla., gated golf community Pat Andrews has called home for 13 years. An early start for the self-motivated Andrews on Oct. 26, 2010, found her deeply entrenched in her daily workout at the community fitness center.
The Washington native had just finished her regular weight training that was expected to be immediately followed by an hour-long Zumba class, only a few short steps from where she was breaking a sweat.
After bending down to place both her water bottle and belongings on the floor, Andrews felt something that wasn’t part of her routine.
“The Zumba class was just about to begin and I felt a little strange,” said Andrews. “My husband was just signing into the fitness center and I went up and told him how my arm was just hanging there and how I had no movement in it at all. We went to the director’s office of the fitness center and it was all over.”
With the quick thinking of her husband and the staff at the center, they immediately knew the signs and dialed 911 to alert paramedics to what is the leading cause of disability and the fifth-most frequent cause of death in the United States.
Andrews suffered a stroke.
May is National Stroke Awareness Month and Andrews and Emil Crisi of Monessen are sharing their stories to help make people aware of the signs of a stroke and the need for immediate medical treatment to prevent permanent disability. A stroke occurs when a blood vessel carrying oxygen to the brain is either blocked by a clot or bursts. When part of the brain can’t get the oxygen it needs, its cells die.
Andrews’ hemorrhagic stroke, caused by ruptured blood vessel that caused brain bleeding, put the working actress and model in Delray Medical Center’s intensive care unit.
“The doctor said I probably wasn’t going to make it and for my husband to call the children right away because I might be gone immediately,” said Andrews. “I was in the ICU for a week then was transferred to another part in the hospital where I could complete two months of rehab.”
Four hours of speech, physical and occupational daily therapy accompanied the exhausting effort of her husband to help her relearn the acquaintances in her life and some basic tasks, as she could remember only close family and couldn’t read.
Although she still can’t drive, and had to adjust to eating and writing with her left hand, the 72-year-old doesn’t shy away from the place that altered her life.
Andrews makes sure she attends that same Zumba class she missed nearly six years ago with the help of a ballet bar to keep her upright.
“It just doesn’t seem real,” Andrews said. “Everybody asks me all of the time about how I am doing. I have certain limitations but that is why I have an aide with me. I think about where I started and how far I’ve came in six years.”
Now, after appearing in commercials for Kellogg’s cereal, Purina and The Home Depot, the mother of three and grandmother of six is not only continuing her career but is also a national stroke advocate, promoting something that might have changed her life but failed to ruin it.
“I’m a real determined person,” she said. “I don’t take no for an answer.”
The same could be said for Crisi, who was finishing a phone call with his daughter on Feb. 4 when he nearly dropped to the floor at the workplace he has called home since 1988, an emergency room.
Crisi, a paramedic for the last 28 years and an emergency medical technician prior to that, was on the receiving end of care from colleagues William Smith and Jim Archer, who noticed the stroke while standing with Crisi.
“I got off the phone with my daughter and all of the sudden, I couldn’t talk anymore,” said Crisi. “I knew what I wanted to say, but I just couldn’t say it. There were only three patients in the emergency room that night so I even was able to get into a hospital bed.”
After a CT scan at Jefferson Medical Center, Crisi was given the clot-busting drug tissue plasminogen activator, or TPA, and was taken by helicopter to Allegheny General Hospital’s Comprehensive Stroke Center for additional specialized care.
The following day Crisi was not only able to speak but started to regain the use of his right side. Two weeks later, he returned home and to the place where he had to start his own form of rehabilitation.
“The rehab I needed was being at home with my wife,” he said.
Flirting with death isn’t something unfamiliar to the 55-year-old, who has given his family plenty of scares that included sudden cardiac arrest while on vacation at Myrtle Beach, S.C., in 2008.
Crisi was brought back from the brink of death several times by his wife, Laurie, before paramedics arrived. Crisi was taken to Muse Hospital in Charleston, S.C., for further evaluation with the hope of keeping him alive.
After spending several days in the hospital, Laurie Crisi and the rest of the family made the 2 ½-hour drive every day of their vacation to visit him in the hospital, where he was able to leave two weeks later.
“Things happen to me all the time,” said Crisi. “I guess that I just have to keep my family on their toes.”
He kept his family on their toes once again as the lifelong Pittsburgh Pirates fan visited PNC Park for the first time Thursday night.
Crisi, who returned back to work earlier this month from his stroke, was honored by both Allegheny Health Network and the Pirates for the third annual Strike Out Stoke that featured an on-field salute prior to the game, followed by throwing out the first pitch.
“People need to know how important it is that when a stroke happens, you have to be able to get help fast,” said Crisi. “I was lucky and it actually worked well for me. I know people who aren’t so lucky.”