The thing that’s easy to miss about Ernesto Lopez is how healthy he is.
An Army veteran with two tours in Iraq behind him, he worked out five days a week and was known to test his athleticism in one race or another.
On March 7, he finished the Spartan race — a 6-mile obstacle course — in 1:30:45, a good 12th place ending for his age group. Two days later, the 37-year-old father of three was back at the Crossfit gym in Fayetteville where he regularly works out. It felt good to be back.
Lopez had been there for barely five minutes when he reached for the jump rope and his knees buckled.
“I tried to get up but I couldn’t,” he said. “I knew then something was wrong.”
But he couldn’t say what. He couldn’t talk, and when he tried, it didn’t make sense.
His gym instructor called 911, and Lopez was rushed to Piedmont Fayette Hospital and then Grady.
“They told me I had a stroke on the left side of my brain,” Lopez said.
Lopez is part of a disturbing health trend, according to a new University of Southern California study: Strokes are declining in older Americans, but they're skyrocketing for younger adults. Researchers found that over 10 years, from 2000-2010, strokes for 25- to 44-year-olds have increased 44 percent, while strokes for those over 65 years old decreased.
There are a number of issues that could make younger people more susceptible, said Dr. Ernesto Fernandez, a neurologist at Piedmont Fayette Hospital.
Risk factors that could lead to a stroke include high blood pressure, high cholesterol, obesity and diabetes.
“At least 80 percent of strokes occur in older people, but just because you’re young doesn’t mean you can’t have a stroke,” Fernandez said.
What makes Lopez unusual, he said, is he had none of the risk factors.
Still, he said, the best way to prevent a stroke is to have regular checkups because in the majority of cases, stroke symptoms are silent.
“In Ernesto’s case, there were no warning signs,” Fernandez said. “We still don’t know the cause of his stroke.”
Fernandez said it’s not unusual for people to experience even silent strokes. Because they occur in a part of the brain we don’t use every day, you may not be aware you’ve even had one.
“The message we always try to get across is we have treatments that can be implemented very quickly and people need to know the symptoms,” Fernandez said.
Those symptoms can be summed up in one word: FAST, as in facial drooping; arm weakness; speech difficulty; time to call 911 and get to a hospital ASAP.
“If people can just learn these three things, we know we can capture 70 percent of strokes,” Fernandez said.
Lopez experienced all three symptoms.
Until she arrived at the hospital that day, his wife, Tanya, believed he might have had a seizure.
Weeks later, he told her he had no idea he wasn’t making sense.
"The moment I walked in, I knew it wasn't a seizure," she said. "His face didn't look right. The right side was drooping, his eyes and mouth especially. He didn't have a lot of strength in his right arm and leg. He spoke gibberish."
The good news, Fernandez said, is Lopez is almost back to normal.
“He got here on time and we were able to treat him; otherwise, he could’ve had a permanent disability,” he said.
Lopez credits the quick action of his gym instructor and the doctors and nurses he believes God put “in the right place at the right time.”
“It could’ve happened on the road that morning when I was taking my son to school,” he said. “Thank God it didn’t.”
About 795,000 people have a stroke every year in the U.S. Every four minutes, one of us dies from stroke.
Two days after his stroke, Ernesto Lopez was reunited with his family. He is now back at the gym, preparing for a mud run this summer.
Why?
In a word: F.A.S.T.
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