As she began to feel uneasy, Kristie’s husband recognized that she was having a stroke and called the emergency services
A woman who was using the social media website TikTok to advertise her home business started to faint and suddenly became confused with her surroundings. According to 43-year-old Kristie Kaluza, she felt as if she fainted but tried to remain awake and upright.
“I didn’t fall. I wasn’t on the floor, but I realised I had dropped the jewelry, and my brain was really confused,” Kaluza, from El Campo, Texas, told Today.com. “I looked up at the camera because I knew my husband was (watching), and I tried to say, ‘I need help,’ and it wouldn’t come out. I couldn’t turn my body. I felt super heavy. I couldn’t really lift my arms.”
As she began to feel uneasy, Kristie’s husband recognized that she was having a stroke and called the emergency services. But when she got to the hospital, staff didn’t consider that she had a stroke at first. “The people at the hospital ... said, ‘You’re so young,’” she recalls. “I come to find out when we finally get to the neurologist … it was a stroke.”
The unexpected stroke
Kristie said the moment she sat in front of the camera to film her latest jewellery line, she started feeling strange, and when she tried to speak, she could not. “There’s a miscommunication, a misfire there somewhere, and I couldn’t get out that, ‘Hey, I don’t feel good,’” she says.
Soon after Kristie’s husband called 911, she began experiencing tremors in her head and hands. “That was one of the scariest things, not being able to say my words and not having control of my head or my hands,” she says.
Bradley, her husband, knew the signs of a stroke because his mother recently experienced one. According to experts, strokes happen when a blood clot or broken vessel prevents blood from getting to your brain. They can be fatal and need immediate treatment. Call 911 or your local emergency services number right away if you think you or someone you are with is having a stroke. The BE FAST acronym can help you spot symptoms.
She did manage to reach the hospital, and an MRI confirmed the diagnosis. Later, doctors administered a blood-thinning medication, which breaks up a blood clot. She was released and underwent an outpatient MRI.
What are strokes?
A stroke is a medical emergency that happens when something prevents your brain from getting enough blood flow. A blocked blood vessel or bleeding in your brain can cause strokes. Healthcare providers sometimes refer to strokes as cerebrovascular accidents or brain attacks.
Strokes are the second leading cause of death worldwide.
Signs and symptoms of a stroke
A stroke leads to different symptoms depending on which area of your brain it affects. Some of the most common symptoms include:
- Aphasia
- Blurred vision
- Confusion or agitation
- Coma
- Dizziness and vertigo
- Headaches
- Loss of muscle control on one side of your face
- Loss of coordination
- Memory loss
- Mood swings
- Neck stiffness
- Passing out or fainting
- Seizures
- Sudden worsening or loss of your senses, including vision, hearing, and smell
-
Weakness or paralysis on one side of your face and body.
What causes a stroke?
There are two types of strokes:
Ischemic stroke happens due to a blood clot that blocks a blood vessel connected to your brain.
Hemorrhagic strokes happen when a blood vessel in your brain breaks or tears due to brain aneurysms and tumours.
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