Meet Courtney — Stroke at age 6
It was March 24th, and three of my four children were home from school with the “flu.” My daughter Courtney was leaving for school, though she seemed cranky to me. I put it down to the fact that my Mother was visiting us, and Courtney was upset that she would not be spending the day with her beloved Grandma. A short time after she arrived at school, she called from the Principal’s office to say she had a headache and wanted to come home. I was amused that she had devised a plan to get to be with Grandma. My Mother went to the school to bring her home, and I went to visit a neighbor to have a coffee.
When I returned my Mother said she thought that Courtney’s flu seemed worse than that of other children. She then told me that Courtney “cannot hold her head up.” I went to check on Courtney who was lying on the sofa and seemed to be asleep. I softly called her name, and my Mom said to leave her sleeping as she was not feeling well. I was about to leave the room when I noticed Courtney’s hair was very wet. Thinking she was spiking a fever I touched her forehead – she was ice cold. I called her name again, she opened her eyes and I saw the pupil of her right eye had deviated out to the side of the eye. I knew then that something was terribly wrong.
We live ten minutes from Montefiore Medical Center. Courtney walked into the ER on her own. The triage nurse took one look and asked “how long has her eye been like that?” Within minutes we were surrounded by doctors. Shortly after that I was ushered into a room with a student nurse. I sensed this was a room to keep the family from the general public. While I was in that room, my Mom told a doctor that Courtney had the flu. Apparently, my Mom was grabbed by the shoulders and told these horrible words: “The child is about to expire.” Dr, Ronald Apfelbaum subsequently told me that Courtney had suffered a massive brain trauma, and he needed to operate as soon as possible. Courtney then went through several hours of brain surgery, and the diagnosis was that she had an AVM. There is no known cause, she was born with it and it is not genetic. The part of her brain involved was field of vision. Before the operation I was told she could possibly be blind or that she would have a very narrow tunnel of vision. Courtney, thanks to the skill of Dr. Apfelbaum, has only a loss of left peripheral vision. For several years after her stroke she had petit mal seizures. Though they lapsed for a few years, they returned at puberty. Nonetheless, she has been seizure free for many years. Courtney went on to lead a very productive and successful life. She is married to a wonderful man, Aaron, and she is the mother of two beautiful children, Brooke and Ford.
We were very fortunate the day of Courtney’s stroke: we live near a large, highly regarded medical center, and the triage nurse immediately recognized the seriousness of the situation. A surgical team was in the hospital, and, a very important fact, an OR was empty and ready to go. The words of one of the doctors will stay with me for the rest of my life: “We snatched your daughter from the jaws of death” I understand fully how fortunate we were that, starting with the triage nurse, and the entire medical staff, Courtney survived to live a good life. This happened because the staff at Montefiore Hospital were trained to recognize the symptoms of a pediatric stroke.
Editor’s Note: Courtney is now grown and married with two children. She has had a successful career in design and television for many years, and is now a Celebrity Designer and TV Personality.
