ONTARIO, Canada – A 48-year-old Ontario woman said she recorded herself having a stroke because doctors didn’t believe her the first time.
Stacey Yepes told CNN she was watching TV when it happened.
“The whole left side of my body went numb and tingly,” she told CNN. “This is a stroke. I can’t be having a stroke.”
Yepes said she went to the hospital for help where doctors told her she wasn’t having a stoke.
“They said it was stress-related and told me to manage my stress,” Yepes said.
The same thing happened to Yepes a few days later and she decided to do something about it doctors couldn’t deny.
She recorded video of her symptoms and showed it to doctors at a Toronto hospital.
Her self-diagnosis was confirmed; she had three mini strokes.
“Things that we usually associate with older age, high blood pressure, diabetes and high cholesterol, is happening more and more often in younger people,” hospital neurologist Dr. Cheryl Jaigobin said. “So young patients can present with stroke.”
Yepes is now recovering at home.
She said the hospital asked for the video so they could study her symptoms to help others in the future.
