Exclusive | I had a stroke at the age of 22: Symptoms I am glad to ignore and what may have increased my risk

It all started with a mysterious sounding in his ears.

Aubrey hasley, 23, was a normal postgraduate student studying occupational therapy at Elmhurst University in Illinois when he woke up one morning with a strange noise he had never heard before.

“It seemed that when you have a microphone too close to the speaker, it was very strong in my head,” he said in the publication. “I honestly scared me a lot. “”

The sound only lasted a few seconds, but quickly became a headache, which was less alarming, as it had a background of migraines.

He decided to cancel his plans and try to deny the migraine, but the symptoms began to get worse.

“I was super dizzy: my headache was getting worse,” he said. “The room turned around.”

At first he thought he could be vertigo. But, as someone who works part -time in a hospital, also acknowledged that he was experiencing some classic stroke symptoms.

However, I did not want to precipitate in the ER.

)I I didn’t realize it could happen to young people and I didn’t want to be dramatic, “he said.

“I don’t think a lot of people know that young people can pass people to young people.”

Aubrey hasley

Her brother gave him a glass of water, which was instantly spilled by herself because at that moment she was “quite discovered. “”

Once her mother returned home, she led her to the efforts of the North Community Hospital -West of Health, where, luckily, the staff took her seriously.

“Luckily, when I arrived at the hospital, I was not given medication and they sent me home,” he said.

This is especially true because their symptoms remained more serious: the face became falling and began to shake his speech, among other things.

“I If my eyes closed for most of the day because if I opened them, I stayed so nausea, “he said, adding that I also had” right -hand and double vision weakness “.

He was ready that he could not even walk when he was diagnosed.

“They had me reading and doing different things with my hands and feet, which I couldn’t do right now,” he said. “And this is what I was told to be a stroke.,

They discussed the options and decided that the best way to proceed was that Dr. Mohammad Anadani, head of neuroendovascular services at the Institute of Health Neuroscience of Effort, would perform a thrombus to eliminate the blood clot.

“I was given a pen to sign [a consent form] To go into surgery and I couldn’t sign because it was my right hand, so my mother did it for me, “she said.

While anyone would agree that this is a terrifying ordeal, Hasley said he was “positive with everything” and that medical staff “made the situation more comforting.”

He even remembers him by playing a song during the procedure: “” Everything that will not be right. “

Surgery went well, but then does not remember so much.

“I just remember being very exhausted and my vision was still a bit blurred the next day, but the recovery was generally quite fast,” he said. “I spent four days in the hospital.”

When his friends learned that he had a stroke, they were surprised, to say -less.

“I don’t think a lot of people know that the blows can happen to young people,” he said.

Cerebrovascular accidents and heart attacks have increased the youngest, even among those who do not have traditional risk factors.

In the case of Aubrey, Anadani said in the publication that he may have passed because he had “a patent oval (PFO), or a hole in the heart, which probably contributed to his stroke allowing a clot passing his lungs and traveling to the brain.”

She added that she was “taking oral contraceptives, which are known to increase the risk of stroke.”

But a recent study also found that the most common risk factor for stroke is to have migraines with aura, of which Aubrey had a background.

)The more I looked, it seemed that this type of migraine is common in people who have PFO, “he said.

“But it does not usually cause much trouble until later in life. So most people go all their lives without knowing that they have. “”

Today, Aubrey is going well, but he hopes to share his story will inspire other people to take their symptoms seriously and seek medical help if they need it.

“I think it’s so important that people know signs [of a stroke]”He said. )If he had brushed it, things could have been worse than they turned out. “”