When a stroke strikes, impacts can last for a lifetime, former Walmart executive and stroke survivor says

 And that's because our fucking failures of a stroke associations HAVE DONE NOTHING TO GET TO 100% RECOVERY PROTOCOLS! All you get from them is useless 'awareness' campaigns! And blaming the survivor for not recognizing the stroke fast enough and getting to the hospital fast!

When a stroke strikes, impacts can last for a lifetime, former Walmart executive and stroke survivor says

Earvin Young didn't seem like the prime candidate for a stroke.

He was an avid cyclist who rode his bike about 50 to 60 miles every weekend. He went to the gym regularly. He tried to keep up with his health.

Then, on Jan. 2, 2025, his son found him passed out on the bathroom floor and rushed him to Northwest Medical Center in Springdale.

Doctors there confirmed Young was having a stroke and sent him to Washington Regional Medical Center in Fayetteville, which is a certified stroke center.

At Washington Regional, Young was given an MRI and was told the blood clot causing the stroke had likely already passed.

He was then sent to Mercy's Rehabilitation Hospital in Rogers, where he suffered from a more serious stroke 10 days after the first one. The second stroke paralyzed him and left him partially unable to speak for a time, he said.

Young described being able to see and hear the paramedics and nurses talking to him and trying to wake him as an out-of-body experience. He said he believed he was answering them, but he wasn't.

Young said he remembers waking up and hearing the doctor suggest hospice to his wife, unsure if he would make it.

Luckily, that was not needed. He has had some success in recovering from the strokes, something the former Walmart executive attributes to his health lifestyle efforts from before the strokes occurred.

Now, the 59-year-old Young has become an advocate for stroke awareness and education.

No one's been able to tell him why the strokes happened, Young said, but he assumes it's a combination of family history and his having consistently elevated blood pressure.

His mother died of a heart attack in 2023, and his father died in 2018 of heart complications. He's the fifth person in his family to have a stroke in about three years, according to his brother, Young said.

Stroke is one of the leading causes of disabilities because it's the only traumatic event that impacts both the circulatory and neurological system, he said.

Young has had to realize he'll never be able to go back to who he was, he said. His intention now is to create something new and become whoever he is on this side of the strokes because there is life after strokes occur.

Young said 80% of the things that cause stroke are things within people's control. Blood pressure, diet and physical activity are a few of the main things people can be aware of. Young wants people to be aware of what strokes can do and how to cope with the aftermath of a stroke, he said.

He started a blog where he shares his story and what he's learned so far about strokes and life afterward. It not only serves to educate others, but it's a form of therapy for him by writing and being creative, he said.

Other parts of the state lack resources, but Northwest Arkansas has several with Washington Regional, the University of Arkansas for Medical Science Northwest and programs like Encompass -- a rehabilitation hospital in Fayetteville, he said. Research being done at places like the Alice L. Walton School of Medicine is also beneficial, he said.

Young said he spoke with another stroke survivor from south Arkansas, who said he didn't know of any resources in his part of the state.

STROKE RESOURCES

Arkansas has one of the highest national rates of deaths from stroke with 93 stroke deaths per 100,000 people, according to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention.

Among Northwest Arkansas counties, rates range from 71 deaths per 100,000 people in Benton County to 128 in Logan County. In Arkansas, the more severe rates of stroke deaths are in the southern and southeast regions, with rates ranging from 112 stroke deaths per 100,000 residents in Nevada County to 133 in Desha County.

Washington Regional Medical Center is the only hospital in Northwest Arkansas to receive advanced certification as a Comprehensive Stroke Center by the Joint Commission and American Heart Association/American Stroke Association, according to the hospital's website. This means Washington Regional is the only hospital in the region able to offer around-the-clock, in-person care from those trained in stroke diagnosis, care and rehabilitation.

The UAMS Outpatient Therapy Clinic in Fayetteville is another resource for stroke patients.

Austin Miller, a neurologic physical therapist there, said the clinic specializes in treating neurologic conditions with a multidisciplinary program, so it has not only physical therapists, but occupational and speech therapists as well. This way, patients don't have to split their care between two facilities.

Many of the clinic's patients have had strokes, Miller said. Strokes are the No. 2 cause of death in Arkansas, he added.

The leading cause of death in Arkansas is heart disease.

A person seeming to have a stroke should get to a facility that can do the kind of diagnostic imaging necessary -- a CT scan or an MRI -- to confirm whether the person is having a stroke and what kind if so.(Still won't do much good without EXACT PROTOCOLS FOR RECOVERY!)

Miller said there are two separate categories of strokes. One is a hemorrhagic stroke, meaning the person is bleeding from a blood vessel in the brain. The other is ischemic, meaning a blood clot or some sort of blockage is obstructing a vessel that supplies blood to the brain.

When diagnosing a stroke, a CT scan is done first to confirm it's not hemorrhagic(That is incredibly slow! Here is what should be done!). If it's not, the medical staff will administer a medication called a tissue plasminogen activator -- an effective, fast-acting blood thinner that should bust up the clot and minimize the potential for long-term damage, Miller said.

If a stroke is hemorrhagic, medical staff will either perform an endovascular procedure, which helps repair a weak spot or break in a blood vessel, according to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention website. Sometimes the patient will need surgical treatment if the bleeding is caused by a ruptured aneurysm -- a balloon like bulge in the wall of an artery -- and a metal clip may be put in place to stop the blood loss.The main risk factors for a stroke, outside of genetics, are high blood pressure and high cholesterol, Miller said. Regular aerobic exercise, not abusing alcohol, avoiding tobacco products, eating a healthy diet and drinking plenty of water are things recommended to prevent an event like a stroke.

An easy acronym for recognizing the signs and symptoms of a stroke are B.E. F.A.S.T.

• B stands for balance loss.

• E stands for eye -- any sort of vision changes, things getting acutely blurry or a person has a sudden partial loss of vision.• F stands for face or facial drooping.

• A stands for arm weakness.

• S is speech or swallowing difficulty.

• T stands for time to call 911.Miller said being aware of the major signs of a stroke can help a person get more immediate help. If a person is having an ischemic stroke, the tissue plasminogen activator needs to be administered within two to four hours of the initial symptoms or the damage will have already taken place and it won't be as effective at mitigating the residual deficits from the blocked artery, he said.