The Stroke
On Thursday morning, April 6, Sue B. had a stroke.
She remembers feeling “off” in the morning while getting ready for work. Her next memory is laying on the floor, unable to move, but conscious and hearing things that were happening around her – the dogs barking next door (they knew – and still know – that something is not right), people knocking on the door, and the rescue team breaking in.
She had a brain stem stroke. We have discovered that this is likely due to an irregularity in her heartbeat known as an atrial fibrillation (afib). With an afib, sometimes not all of the blood can be pushed out of the heart, and it pools at the bottom where it can eventually clot. Once clotted, it can be pushed out of the heart and cause damage – such as in this case where it became lodged in the brain stem.
Timeline
These are the events that happened on Thursday, April 6, as closely as I can recall. It was a hectic day, and most of this was put together days later. my apologies if it is not accurate, but it should give an approximate rundown of the morning’s events.
~9:00AM – Sue had not shown up for work. Her friend and coworker, Sandra, called Sue and went to her house and knocked on her door. Sue’s car was there, but there was no answer with either the phone or door.
~10:30AM – The beauty salon where she worked called a number that was on file, and eventually that led to Sue’s daughter being alerted to the situation. Both Kim and her husband Chad were working from home that day, so they immediately jumped in the car and headed to Sue’s house. The weather was terrible, so it took over an hour to make it there.
~11:30AM – When Kim arrived, the police, fire and rescue, and several friends and neighbors were already there. Fire and rescue broke into Sue’s house and found her alive and breathing on her bedroom floor. They rushed her to INOVA Fairfax.
~1:30PM – Sue had a surgery to remove the blood clot from her brain stem. After a successful surgery, she was transferred to a room in the ICU.