A quick thinking Canadian woman may have saved her own life by recording her stroke with her smartphone, CBC News reported.
Stacey Yepes, 49, filmed herself in her car to show doctors her symptoms a day after she had been sent home following a similar attack and told it was stress.
In April, she went to a hospital after an attack where she experienced numbness and slurred speech, she told Canada's CBC.
"It's happening again," she said, "I don't know why this is happening to me." She said the time, demonstrated how hard it was for her to talk, touched her nose, and held up her left arm to show how stiff her fingers were. In short, everything you would do in those first few high-pressure minutes in a doctor's office, she did for the camera.
She then headed to a nearby hospital, where she was referred to yet another hospital's stroke center. The video convinced the doctors at the center that she was having a transient ischemic attack, otherwise known as a mini-stroke-a diagnosis that was later confirmed by MRI.
The video helped Jaigobin and the team diagnosed Yepes with a mini-stroke.
Yepes has been off work since the stroke and is undergoing rehabilitation, CTV News reported. She's on cholesterol-lowering and blood-thinning drugs to prevent future attacks. Yepes, who hopes to return to work next month, and her doctors are happy with her progress.
The medical team is also thrilled to study the video as an example of stroke symptoms.
But they did have some advice for Yepes and other patients: "They warned me should any symptoms happen again, dial 911 first - and then do the video," she said.
