Young Stroke Sucks

In August 2023 my husband suffered a stroke at the age of 38. His symptoms didn't match the usual FAST (Face, Arms, Speech) signs but we knew something was very wrong.

Ian was an HGV driver and on his way back to the yard at 3 in the morning he began to feel that something was wrong. Pins and needles began to prick his fingers and his foot. Slowly working there way along his arm and climbing his leg. He called me as he left work and he was really starting to feel unwell. By the time he made it home, the right side of his body was numb and a headache had kicked in.

" Like my brain is trying to push its way out from between my eyes".

Because of the numbness I did the FAST test on him. He passed. His face didnt slump, he could lift his arm without a problem, and his speech sounded fine. His couldn't balance or focus properly though and the numbness wasn't going anywhere. It didn't take long to figure out that he should head off to hospital.

At this point stroke had gone completly out of our heads. He had passed the test, every single point of it. 4 hours later and he is told he is just having a migraine, something he has never suffered from before (also as a migraine sufferer myself - the word just had no place in that sentence). "Go home, get some rest and you will be fine" he was told.

He was not fine! 8 hours later and we end up back at A+E. He is given a CT scan this time but, as it was now more than 13 hours since the onset of symptoms, nothing shows up. He was referred to the TIA (mini stroke) clinic as a precaution but really "it's just a migraine and he just needs to rest".

It took another 2 and a half weeks before we finally got the confirmation that it had been a full stroke. This was confirmed by an MRI 2 weeks after the initial hospital visit as he was still having unusual symptoms. During the whole process we kept being told that it wasn't going to have been a stroke as he was to young.

Ian is still suffering with symoptoms today and has had further medical issues because of the delay in diagnosis. If a CT scan had been carried out on his first visit then treatment would have been immediate. The damage could have been stopped in its tracks.

I am writing this to hopefully bring some awareness to young stroke. I dont blame the hospital staff for treating him the way they did on that first visit. He was very low risk for stroke. As well as his young age, he didn't have any of the other obvious risk factors.

I did not know at the time but stroke can look very different in younger patients, often also affecting balance and eyesight.

Stroke was not something that I had ever really considered. Even when testing Ians symptoms, it was more done as a thing you're supposed to do rather than something I thought was an actual possibility.

If you are worried then please seek medical advice. I am not a doctor and can only speak to my family's experience.