Stacey Yepes went to the hospital near the beginning of April for numbness in her face and an inability to speak properly. She believed she was having a stroke but tests came back clear and doctors said her symptoms were stress related.
Two days later on April 2, she began feeling the same symptoms. This time, however, she decided to record a video of herself to prove to doctors she was having a stroke.
The video shows Yepes talking into the camera while the left side of her face goes numb and her left arm begins to feel week. After recording the video, Yepes went to the emergency room at Mount Sinai Hospital in downtown Toronto where she was referred to the stroke unit. They told her she was having a mini-stroke.
Toronto’s University Health Network posted Yepes’ video in hopes of spreading awareness of stroke warning signs to the public.
“We’ve never had a patient do this before,” Dr. Cheryl Jaigobin, a stroke neurologist the hospital’s Krembil Neuroscience Centre, told Canada’s National Post in reference to Yepes’ video.
“And I guess for a patient who wanted someone to believe her symptoms were real, it was absolutely incredible,” Jaigobin went on. “When we saw Stacey’s videotape, we were all touched by it and absolutely convinced that her deficits were clearly because of a mini stroke.”
All I could think of while reading this story was, “I’m having a stroke. But first. Let me take a selfie.”