For stroke victims, time is crucial

Kristen and Andy Jorgenson are on cloud nine since the arrival of their first born child, Troy.

It's especially sweet, because Kristen had a stroke four years ago, when she was just 26.

It started in a PennDOT driver's license center.

"I suddenly felt faint, really dizzy, and I had a pounding migraine," Kristen said.

And on her photo, Kristen's face is swollen, and one side is drooping.

Her walk as she left was also unstable.

"I just plowed straight into the snowbank," Kristen said.

On the short, but harrowing ride to Paoli Hospital, Kristen could barely talk.

"It was going from this really weird witch cackle to kind of babbling," Andy said.

The ER staff immediately knew it was a stroke, and because she'd gotten there so quickly, they gave her a drug to break up a clot in her brain.

"This is what we call a large vessel occlusion," Dr. Hannah Choe of Abington Memorial Hospital said.

Dr. Choe says 10% of strokes are in people 18 to 45 years old.

For Kristen, an undetected heart defect allowed a clot to form and it went to her brain.

Dr. Choe reminds everyone smoking is also a major risk factor.

"Young women smoking and using oral contraceptives is a huge no-no," Dr. Choe said.

Accidents or trauma can also injure blood vessels, triggering clots.

Kristen says she couldn't have recovered without that clot-busting drug.

"I swear that saved my life," Kristen said.

But so did her fast-acting husband.

"Sometimes, I think what could have happened," Andy said.

Dr. Choe says for every hour that passes, 120 million brain cells die.

To memorize the signs of stroke, think FAST:

F for any face drooping or asymmetry

A for arm weakness

S for speech difficulties

T for time.