A Terrible Thing Happened: My Father Had a Stroke

August 14, 2010. My father who I will refer to as 'dad', woke up from his nap about 3:00 in the afternoon on a Saturday, walked out to the living room and sat in his chair. From another room, I heard him say something, but not 'hearing' him quite right, I went to the living room and asked him what did he say. And out came the most garbled speech! I asked him to repeat what he said, and again, the same thing. I felt a little weak in the knees as I had seen this before with other people's relatives. I knew what had happened. My dad had a stroke. I asked him if he was in any pain. He said no. I told him to stay put, and I dialed 911. By the time the paramedics arrived, my dad stopped responding to any questions, and stared out the window. The paramedic yelled at him, "hey, look at me!" My dad slowly turned toward him, with a flat facial affect. He would not squeeze the paramedics fingers when asked, or communicate in any way. Just stared. The paramedics scooped dad up and took him to Loma Linda University Medical Center, which is not the closest facility, but are better equiped to handle strokes. Later that night, dad was transfered to his insurance provider hospital. The doctors ran more tests to try to locate where the damage had occured in his brain. I would have to wait for the doctor to talk with me about how much damage there was.