Strokes Affect All Ages
Young Orefield man had uncommon type
On his way back—When Paul Humenik was well enough to leave the hospital after his stroke, his wife, Nikki, sought special permission to drive him home in her new Saturn Sky convertible because she knew it would make him smile.
One month after Nikki and Paul Humenik were married, Paul awoke one morning with the worst headache of his life. “On a scale of 1 to 10, it was 250,” says the Orefield database administrator.
Within minutes, Paul was in dire need of medical attention: his right side was numb, his right pupil was dilated, and he was vomiting. The next thing he remembers is waking up in the neuroscience intensive care unit (NSICU) at Lehigh Valley Hospital. His brother was telling him not to touch his head because he had a surgically created “soft spot” like a newborn baby.
Paul had suffered a hemorrhagic stroke—bleeding in the brain from a burst blood vessel. “Our immediate goal was to save his life and preserve his brain function,” says neurosurgeon Mei Wong, M.D. During emergency surgery to drain the blood, Wong removed part of his skull to help ease pressure on his brain.
An angiogram showed Paul’s stroke was caused by an abnormality in a blood vessel. The arteriovenous malformation (AVM) was likely there since birth, Wong says, and he couldn’t have done anything to prevent the stroke. Hemorrhagic strokes like his are less common than ischemic strokes, the type caused by a blood clot in the vessel.
Neither type is common in people as young as Paul Humenik. Ischemic strokes reportedly are on the rise in this group, however, due to a rise in risk factors such as high blood pressure, high cholesterol, obesity, smoking, inactivity and out-of-control diabetes.
Nikki Humenik was shocked to learn her young husband had had a stroke. “It all seemed so unreal,” she says. “The whole time he was in the NSICU, I still felt like he would be at home waiting for me when I finally got there.” She stayed by his side throughout his six-week ordeal, which included another surgery and a medically induced coma to allow his brain to heal. Paul is now in cognitive therapy and will have his AVM repaired with Gamma Knife® surgery in the near future. He’s eager to return to work and normal life.
“The important lesson is that Paul got to the hospital quickly. That’s absolutely critical with any stroke,” Wong says. “It’s particularly important if you’re young, because your brain is resilient and with prompt treatment can make a full recovery.”
Want to Know More about the signs and symptoms of stroke? Call 610-402-CARE for click here.
Published from Healthy You Magazine, November-December 2008
This page last updated 10/23/08 10:50 AM
