![\"\"](\"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/Drea-and-Gershon-posed-300x200.jpg\")
\u201cAs I slowly pitched forward and tried my best to control my slow descent to the floor, I distinctly remember thinking, \u2018well, this isn\u2019t good.\u2019 I tried to call for help, I couldn\u2019t find my voice. Words were just not coming out,\u201d recalls Wall.<\/p>\n
She struggled to get to the bathroom door and push it open so her friend who was visiting for breakfast would hear her and call 9-1-1.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere I was laying on my back in the hallway in front of the bathroom. I could talk now, but all that kept coming out of my mouth was Mississippi, I don\u2019t know why,\u201d says Wall.<\/p>\n
The paramedic recognized Wall was having a stroke and knew that they needed to get her to UConn John Dempsey Hospital\u2019s Emergency Department right away where there was a dedicated Stroke Center.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen we heard that a 30-year-old with stroke-like symptoms was coming in through our stroke alert system, our senses heightened,\u201d says Jennifer Sposito, R.N., M.S.N, stroke coordinator at the UConn Health Stroke Center.<\/p>\n
EMS\u2019 advanced notification from Wall\u2019s home to the Emergency Department activated the hospital\u2019s swift stroke team\u2019s response that whisked her from the ambulance directly to CT scan machine in the ED.\u00a0That system works so that patients, like Drea, can rapidly receive TPA (a time-sensitive blood-thinning medication that helps reverse stroke) well below or within the \u201cgolden hour\u201d care window.<\/p>\n
The neurologists, neuro-interventionalists, anesthesiologists and neurosurgeons in the hospital\u2019s state-of-the-art hybrid OR room and its OR staff worked quickly to get Wall an immediate mechanical thrombectomy procedure to remove the stroke from traveling deeper into her brain.<\/p>\n
Dr. Abner Gershon, the neuro-interventionalist that retrieved the clot from the clogged brain artery relates, \u201c\u2018Time is brain\u2019 is a mantra that I like to keep in mind with regard to stroke treatment. Every second that ticks by there may be brain tissue passing from a viable to a non-recoverable state. Hence the need for rapid intervention.\u201d<\/p>\n
Post-surgical intervention, Wall recovered in the Neuro-ICU followed by a comprehensive work up on the Primary Stroke Unit from the advanced stroke trained nurses, rehab specialists, and dedicated care coordinators.<\/p>\n
Within 24-hours of her stroke occurring, her speech and motor skills all returned.<\/p>\n
\u201cI will always remember visiting her when she was on our primary stroke unit and she had gone from being paralyzed and unable to speak, to a happy, smiling, lively, young, grateful, woman with eloquent speech that regained her ability to walk and move around again,\u201d says Sposito.<\/p>\n
\u201cHealthy thirty-year-olds just don\u2019t have strokes, there has to be a reason,\u201d believes Wall.<\/p>\n
Stroke is the leading cause of adult disability in the U.S. The American Heart Association has released recent statistics stating that the prevalence of stroke for younger individuals in increasing.<\/p>\n
The Hunt to Find Out Why <\/strong> \u201cAmong patients with cryptogenic strokes, the PFO which is a small hole in the heart that did not close at birth known as a patent foramen ovale, is considered a possible cause of her stroke,\u201d says Lee.<\/p>\n Wall recently underwent a percutaneous PFO closure procedure performed by Lee. During this minimally invasive procedure, a catheter with a tiny closure clip device was inserted through the leg vein and guided up to the heart, where the device is used to close the open flap.<\/p>\n \u201cClosing the PFO with medical therapy has been shown to reduce the recurrent ischemic stroke rate compared to the medical therapy alone,\u201d states Lee.<\/p>\n According to Wall it was important to her to have this procedure to not only prevent further strokes but so she could fulfill her dream to become a scuba diver instructor once cleared by her doctors. Scuba divers with open PFOs may be more likely to have small strokes and damage to their brain when they dive.<\/p>\n Following her life transforming stroke care, Wall has moved all her care to UConn Health and has regular follow-up visits with her neurologist, cardiologist, and hematologists. \u201cI always feel like I\u2019m getting the best care here, not only do your UConn doctors need to be qualified in their role, they are also qualified to teach future doctors,\u201d shares Wall.<\/p>\n \u201cI have found the doctors really take the time to talk to you and explain everything. They focus on doing what is best for you,\u201d says Wall.<\/p>\n \u201cDrea is an integral part of our Stroke Survivor Group at UConn Health.\u00a0 She had shared her inspirational story with others who have gone through similar experiences, all helping each other to heal,\u201d states Sposito, the Stroke Program Coordinator.<\/p>\n \u201cJust because you have a major health event doesn\u2019t mean life is over,\u201d says Wall. \u201cThe stroke does not define me.\u201d<\/p>\n Just a month after the stroke, Wall competed in a 5k obstacle course.<\/p>\n This fall, Wall shared her story publicly for the first time at the Stroke Survivor Symposium held at UConn Health. \u201cI decided to speak at the symposium because I wanted to make a difference in people\u2019s lives by sharing my story, how to quickly recognize a stroke, seek timely treatment, and follow lifestyle recommendations to reduce future risk of stroke.\u201d<\/p>\n Wall says that the successful recovery she made was due to how quickly she received stroke care. She knows first-hand that \u201cTime is Brain.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIt is incredibly uplifting and inspirational to see this life-changing recovery. We are so happy to have her as part of our UConn Health family,\u201d states Sposito.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" \u201cAs I slowly pitched forward and tried my best to control my slow descent to the floor, I distinctly remember thinking, \u2018well, this isn\u2019t good.\u2019 I tried to call for help, I couldn\u2019t find my voice. Words were just not coming out,\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":139,"featured_media":156701,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_crdt_document":"","wds_primary_category":0,"wds_primary_series":0,"wds_primary_attribution":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2193,1868],"tags":[],"magazine-issues":[],"coauthors":[2209],"class_list":["post-156699","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-hartford-county","category-meds"],"pp_statuses_selecting_workflow":false,"pp_workflow_action":"current","pp_status_selection":"publish","acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-09 04:41:38","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/156699","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/users\/139"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=156699"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/156699\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media\/156701"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=156699"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=156699"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=156699"},{"taxonomy":"magazine-issue","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/magazine-issues?post=156699"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=156699"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nAccording to UConn Health\u2019s Dr. Juyong Lee, director of vascular medicine and endovascular therapy, Wall underwent multiple cardiovascular tests to try to identify the root cause of her stroke. She was ultimately diagnosed with a cryptogenic stroke.<\/p>\n