Aurora stroke survivor, 21, shares story to spread awareness

AURORA, Colo. (KDVR) — A 21-year-old who survived a stroke is sharing her story in hopes of raising awareness and maybe even saving a life.

One of the simple joys in Melody McMurray’s life is spending time with her dog. Those daily walks are even sweeter now after she had a stroke earlier this year.

“I started feeling a little discombobulated. Everything was confusing to me. My sister would ask me the simplest question and for some reason, I couldn’t answer it.” McMurray said.

She said she thought she was just tired, but also felt like something was wrong.

“My fiancé was able to point out the signs of having a stroke so he immediately rushed me over here to the Aurora Medical Center,” she said.

At just 21 years old, she was diagnosed with a stroke, a blood clot in the brain. According to the Centers for Disease Control, stroke risk increases with age, however, they can and do happen to people of all ages.

“I always say stroke does not respect age so you can have a stroke at any age meaning a child, a teenager, or a young adult,” Dr. Alicia Bennett of the Medical Center of Aurora told FOX31.

According to the CDC, someone in the U.S. has a stroke every 40 seconds , and someone dies of a stroke every three minutes and 14 seconds.

Bennett said recognizing the signs and symptoms right away is the most important part.

“The easiest way to remember is BE FAST. So that stands for Balance, Eyes, Face, Arm, Speech and Time to call 911,” she said.

Here are the signs and symptoms the CDC lists:

• Sudden numbness or weakness in the face, arm, or leg, especially on one side of the body.
• Sudden confusion, trouble speaking, or difficulty understanding speech.
• Sudden trouble seeing in one or both eyes.
• Sudden trouble walking, dizziness, loss of balance, or lack of coordination.
• Sudden severe headache with no known cause.

If you think someone may be having a stroke, the CDC recommends doing the following test:

• Face: Ask the person to smile. Does one side of the face droop?
• Arms: Ask the person to raise both arms. Does one arm drift downward?
• Speech: Ask the person to repeat a simple phrase. Is the speech slurred or strange?
• Time: If you see any of these signs, call 9-1-1 right away.

Additionally, the CDC says to take note of the time when symptoms first appear because time is of the essence.

“The easy answer we have is four and a half hours to treat a person from when the stroke started,” Dr. Bennett said.

Thanks to her fiance, McMurray got to the hospital in time. About 12 hours after treatment, her speech and movement started coming back.

While the road to recovery has been long, McMurray said she is one of the lucky ones.

“If we didn’t get here fast enough I feel like I would not be here at all today,” McMurray said.

The CDC said anyone can help prevent stroke by making healthy lifestyle choices , including:

• Choose healthy food and drink
• Keep a healthy weight
• Get regular physical activity
• Dont smoke
• Limit alcohol
• Control medical conditions
• Check cholesterol
• Control blood pressure
• Control diabetes
• Treat heart disease
• Take your medicine

The CDC advises people to speak with their doctors about what they can do to limit their risk for stroke.

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