Meet Justin — Stroke at age 15
Our son, Justin, suffered a massive right middle cerebral ischemic stroke on September 22, 2014, at the age of 15. Justin had returned home from a hot, hard football practice, took a nap, woke up and collapsed on the bathroom floor. When we were finally able to get into the locked bathroom, we found Justin completely paralyzed on his left side with left sided facial droop and slurred speech. When I asked him to move his left arm and he reached over to pick it up with the right arm, I knew he’d had a stroke–I just could not believe it.
Justin was rushed to our local children’s hospital where he suffered a seizure and was intubated. I will never forget those first nights begging for my son to please live, whether he could move or not. We felt completely helpless. He remained in the PICU there for 10 days, was intubated for 5 of them as he battled pneumonia and then was transferred to the adult in-patient rehabilitation unit. Despite predictions of a 6-8 month stay; he walked out of in-patient rehab 3 weeks later! He re-learned to walk, talk, eat, write and “be” during this time. He spent 2 months in an intensive, all day therapy program and was able to return to his regular high school classes 4 months after the stroke. He continues to have left sided deficits, left sided neglect and cognitive deficits that we work on every day. He pushes through severe post-stroke fatigue to get through each day. He continues in occupational and physical therapy twice a week. He is rostered on his schools’ football team even though he cannot play; he attends every practice he can and every game. He has been cleared to play in the non-contact spring scrimmage this year and attends multiple practices a week to prepare. He lifts weights every day and runs at least a mile almost every evening. He continues to do the things he’s always loved to do, such as hunting, perfecting his duck calling and fishing. With help from an IEP and wonderful teachers, he’s doing well in school and dreams of becoming a physical therapist one day.
Justin has been given every possible test to try to determine why he suffered an ischemic stroke at 15. He has some minor clotting predispositions, which they hypothesize, coupled with dehydration from football may have caused this stroke. Part of this journey has been accepting that we may never know.
When I write all this now, it is easy to recount the facts and it makes it seem easier than it really has been to go through everything we’ve been through in this last year. It is not as easy to describe the terrible despair our entire family has felt, the desperation and turmoil with which we are still dealing with today. Justin has had to accept that he will never be the same person he was “before”. But we also have felt tremendous moments of joy, thankfulness, gratitude and pride. We have learned so much about ourselves and our family has grown stronger together. This is what we strive to focus on. I have seen first-hand how Justin’s story has inspired others in our family and community to persevere through difficult times. When I mention to Justin that I’ve learned of a family that is going through similar circumstances or an illness with their child, the first thing he asks me is, “Have we reached out to them yet?” I know that Justin will continue to overcome and will use the adversity he has faced to help others throughout his life.
He truly lives the mantra “Let Nothing Stop You.”
