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

- 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
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- 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