“The Neurologist did not stop to answer my questions” Mother on her son’s stroke at just 19-years-old

In the second part of a three-part series on young stroke survivor Garrett Mendez, who was only 19-years-old when he had a stroke, his mother Eileen Mendez shares her recollection of her son’s stroke and recovery.

Garrett’s stroke was caused by a head first hit into the boards during a hockey game. The hit occurred six days before he had the stroke. We were at that game. He was a freshman in college. Garrett played hockey since he was four and it was the worst hit I had ever seen. I thought he had broken his neck or was dead. Within a few minutes, he was moving his feet, he got up, was checked by the trainer who found no sign of concussion or anything else and he actually finished the game. 

A few days later he came home from college. The day after Thanksgiving he had another game. Nothing out of the ordinary happened during that game, so when he came home that night and said he had a headache and his legs felt weak, we were not too concerned. 

Later that night he started to vomit and told us the right side of his face was a little numb. We did not put together than hit from six days earlier with those flu like symptoms. He went to bed, thinking he had a case of the flu. 

The next morning when I went to check on him, something was terribly wrong. I couldn’t get him to respond or wake up. He was rushed to the nearest hospital. They did all the tests. Although the radiologist diagnosed stroke, the neurologist told us that he thought Garrett was moving during the scans and told us “19 year olds don’t have strokes. 

He thought Garrett had a severe case of encephalitis and then told us “with continued treatment Garrett would be sitting up and talking in a few days”.  They performed an MRA later that day-the vascular form of the MRI. The diagnosis was brain stem stroke. When Garrett hit his head six days earlier he tore the artery in the back of it neck. It bled slowly and six days later a clot formed that caused the stroke. 

The Neurologist who misdiagnosed him delivered this diagnosis in the middle of a crowded ICU lobby his words were “massive brain stem stroke, we’ll keep him comfortable for a few days”, then he turned and walked away from me. The Neurologist did not stop to answer my questions, left the building and did not leave any new orders for Garrett’s care despite the change in diagnosis.

I don’t think he expected Garrett to survive the night. So we did not know Garrett had a stroke until 36 hours after it occurred. Garrett was “locked in”, unable to see, speak, swallow and was fully paralysed and on a ventilator. We spent 20 days in ICU before he was transferred to Gaylord. We spent 2 months at Gaylord and then continued with intensive outpatient therapy for the next 5 years.

During his recovery our lives changed drastically. Our only focus was on his recovery. We are self employed real estate appraisers-we walked away from our business to do whatever we had to so that he could have the best recovery possible. Because he had swallowing issues and the potential to fall (he refused to use a walker), we did not leave him alone for the first two years.

Our daughter Jenn had just graduated college and she put her career on hold to help in any way she could. It would be two years before we thought about working full time again. By then we had gone through our savings. The US real estate market had crashed, banks were failing and there was no work. It was a scary couple of years but we somehow were able to hold onto our house and continued to do whatever was needed to give him the best chance at recovery. 

We never wanted to look back and say “what it” or “if only we had tried this”. We looked into all new therapies and devices and would try anything even if it helped 1% it was worth trying.

Garrett amazed us with his work ethic and his refusal to settle for anything less than the fullest recovery possible. We are so thankful to Gaylord Hospital and his Doctors, Nurses and therapy team. They never put a limit on his recovery. 

His Physiatrist Dr. Sicklick always told him the sky was the limit in his recovery. They pushed him like the athlete he was. After his discharge, we continued with outpatient therapy at Gaylord for two years. Therapy can get boring, so after Gaylord we started looking for ways to keep it interesting. His physical therapist at that time was not much older than Garrett. 

He was aggressive and really pushed Garrett. They actually had an office at an ice rink. The rink staff generously donated ice time so that Garrett could re learn to skate as part of his therapy.

Against all odds, he re learned to skate. I never knew if he would walk again. I never dreamed it would be possible for him to skate again. 

He also plays a very good game of golf, something he is very passionate about. I never really thought about the future much in the early days. Our focus was one day at a time. If you had asked me in those early days, I never would have imagined that he would be able reclaim that part of his life that he loved so much. For that we are all very thankful.

I would like to tell you that we share our story as often as we can because I know if I had heard a story like ours at a couple of critical moments, I would have reacted differently and might have been able to change his future.

In part one of this series Garrett shares his story, you can read that here.