Stroke Survivor

As summer approaches, Sydney Priest is looking forward to one of her favorite activities — wakeboarding. For the 28-year-old medical student, it’s an accomplishment to get back on the board after she was treated for a massive stroke just more than two years ago at University of Missouri Health Care in Columbia, Missouri.

On Jan. 26, 2016, Priest had finished morning classes at the Kirksville College of Osteopathic Medicine and was relaxing alone in her apartment. Hours later, Priest found herself in a neuroangiography suite at University Hospital in Columbia, undergoing life-saving measures for a rare and devastating form of stroke.

“My day was completely normal, just like any other day at school,” Priest said. “All of a sudden, I felt dizzy, couldn’t speak, began to vomit and I lost control of the right side of my body. We hadn’t gotten to the lecture on stroke symptoms in class yet, so I had no idea what was going on.”

A stroke occurs when blood supply to the brain is interrupted or drastically reduced, depriving the brain of oxygen and nutrients. The longer a stroke goes untreated, the greater the potential for brain damage and disability. And stroke doesn’t just affect older people; between 2000 and 2010, there was a 44 percent increase in the rate of stroke among people 25 to 44 years old, according to the Journal of the American Medical Association.

Obesity, high blood pressure, high cholesterol and diabetes are all major risk factors for stroke. But younger people should also be aware of other potential causes.