Danny Adams

On December 28, 2018 the love of my life suffered a life changing event.  I arrived home from work at 0715 that morning and went to bed at 0830-I work nights. Dan had been on his usual Christmas break from work at American Airlines and was still sleeping.  About 1000 I woke to Dan falling out of bed. I had taken a Benadryl and only been asleep 1 hour after 13 hours of work, quite groggy. At first I tried to get him up (crazy that I thought I could get a 220 lb man up off the floor by myself) until I realized he wasn't making much sense, except that he needed something for a headache , and that his left arm wasn't moving.  I immediately called 911-they were seconds away as the fire station is only a mile down the street (the first heroes in this story). They  quickly knew he was having a stroke and whisked us in the ambulance to St John Medical Center-a comprehensive stroke center. Things happened very fast after that-seconds count with a stroke. Dr. Wannahita (the second hero, as well as the amazing ER staff) met us there and facilitated transport to CT where she diagnosed a MCA (middle cerebral artery) thrombus (blood clot)-a stroke. She quickly discussed the options with me-luckily I understood it well as I am on the Rapid Response Team at Hillcrest Hospital and respond to all the stroke calls-and it was decided immediately that the team would attempt a clot retrieval  (mechanical thrombectomy) in Interventional Radiology, improving Dan's chances of survival and lessening the residual deficits. This went well and the awesome radiologist  Dr. Baldec (third hero, with his team) kept at it till he was sure he had done everything he could to resolve the clot and lessen the damage to the surrounding brain tissue.  Dr. Wannahita then escorted us to MRI then to Neuro Trauma ICU, where the amazing staff took over to do what they do so well every day to change lives (fourth heroes!).  Our dear friend Cathy Cunningham, Nurse Practitioner, (hero every day) was on top of coordinating the care Dan would need going forth. All this within 3 hours and he was tucked into bed in room 724-stable and, more importantly, blissfully alive.