Stroke Awareness & Stop the Bleed

Welcome to iHeartRadio Communities, a public affairs special focusing on the biggest issues in facting you this week.

Here's many Munios and welcome to another edition of Iheartradios Communities. As you heard, I am Manny Munyo's. Many of us likely know someone who's had a stroke, but do you really know what it is, or what causes a stroke, or what the recovery is like. Well, May is National Stroke Awareness Month, and in hopes of getting some clarity on all of that, we bring in Jennifer Rose Goldman. She's written a book in the Face of Catastrophe, How a traumatic brain injury became a blessing. Jen, I really

Of course, I'm glad you had me here.

So explain your story to me. You were a perfectly healthy thirty one year old. Just days before you're thirty one, your thirty first birthday, you had a stroke.

I'm a thirty one yet third your birthday. It was clearly at the blue. It was from like what is called a cavernous alformation, which is a blood vessel that's abnormal, and it just bursted in my brain at the blue. I had no idea what was going to happen. I actually like, look out that morning in perfect health. Until it happened. It was perfect. I was perfectly healthy. There was not any case that would happened to me.

Do you do you remember how you felt while it was happening, because I know I've read a story where your mom got a phone call from I think it was somebody at your work, and they said that you weren't right, that it was almost like you were you were on an acid trip.

Yes, I don't remember that at all. Honestly, I don't remember anything from a stroke, to be honest, because I blacked out. I was not even aware of what was happening, so.

None of it for for how long a period of time? Do you know?

About three months? Yeah? Really, I was in out of consciousness for three months. Like the first ten days or so, I was out of it completely, and then I remember like bits and pieces, like I have vague memories of people, and I don't really remember anything other than people.

That was because when you had the stroke, you went into a coma.

Right, yes, uh huh. They think it was from a genetic abnormality on my brain called a cavernous and anformation which I was born with or I don't really know honestly, because people that have that are born with them. They had they have like a lot of them usually and they have a rupture. It's very rare for this to rupture. And because it ruptured, it was a bleed and it was really devastating bleed and left fun blow of my brain.

Is that usually what strokes are. What exactly is a stroke?

It could be a dry stroke, which is where it's a clot, or a bleed which is a hemorrhage. So there's dry strokes, which is a schamic stroke, and there's a hamorrhagic stroke, which.

Is a bleed in the brain.

Yes, uh huh exactly what is depending on where it happened in your brain. It it effects different parts of your body. So like my shoke has my left from the lobe, which affects my speech and cognition and rights out of motor function.

And four years later you're still feeling the effects and you're still recovering.

Right, yeah, uh huh yeah, exactly.

Explain what that has been like. When when did you first come out of it? It was you said like three months later that you finally were able to understand what had happened to you.

Yes, I was three months later where I was starting to understand. And I wanted to read this book because I realized how chomped as the whole family have been. Because my mom had taken these really good notes when I had the stroke, and I want her to share with me, and she started to share, and then she was like, word, it was me so upset by them

And I saw you, I saw you saying what those notes were like. It was it was kind of like your brain being a jumbled file cabinet.

That's exactly what it was like. I didn't know what had happened. I thought that five years had passed. It had been three months, and it was like it was really difficult for me to understand how the piece that fit together. I didn't know how to do. I didn't really have any way to like understand how much time had passed or how old I mean I didn't even remember how old I was, or I didn't even remember who my chance was.

You were engaged at the time when you had your.

Stroke, yes, yeah, how long?

So obviously this this messes up your your brain, your memory things like that. Did these things start coming back to you or do you still not remember a lot of things.

I mean, I don't remember the stroke, obviously, but I remember other things. Like I've been working my memory every day. It's really been a practice of like remembering and working on it every day.

So I'm imagining that that is part of the title of the book, right it's in the face of catastrophe, how a traumatic brain injury become it became a blessing is learning about those things the blessing.

The blessing is that we got to spend time with together as a family that I didn't even know I was missing because before the stroke, I've been a regular thirty year old. I was very elusive and aloof and I was living my own life and I didn't even care about anyone. It wasn't that I didn't care about anyone, but like, I was very independent, and I would I would rarely be home, and I was in my life like I was living my boyfriend and I was living

How have you How have you gone back and learned about your previous life, things that maybe you didn't remember, because not everybody gets a chance to think about their life from almost looking at it as a third person. And it seems like that's the opportunity you had.

I wouldn't say I was looking at as a third person. I would say that hmm, I would say that right, you.

Were looking at them through fresh eyes.

No, yes, yes, that's exactly what it was.

Yeah, And what have you learned?

I've learned, Like, I've learned so many things. I've learned. The first thing that I've learned is that the chapter is never fully written. The pen is always in your hands. You can always choose how you want your story to end. Your story depend is in your hand. It's so ridiculous. Breath That's the first thing I've learned. Also learned the power of positivity. Positivity is amazing. It's really by being positive and having a positive attitude, you can change the

Her name is Jennifer Rose Goldman. The book is titled in the Face of Catastrophe, How a traumatic brain injury Became a Blessing. The website for the book is in the Face of Catastrophe dot com. Jennifer, how are you living your life differently this time around than you were before the stroke.

Well, firstly, I'm living at home with my parents, which is you know, it's challenging. I really reprioritize my life. My fiance I broke up, which is whatever. So I have this new boyfriend who's really good to me, and and I'm walking with a walker, and I'm work on my recovery every day. It's a NonStop process.

What is what is heart? Which is a harder part of your recovery, the physical or the mental?

Oh, that's such a challenging question.

Actually, let me rephrase it. Let's let's break those down into what is the physical part of your recovery? Like right now, what is it four years later?

I still have no perifle vision, I still can't balance. I walk with a walker. I have braced on both legs. I have braced on braces on both legs. And yeah, that's pretty much it.

What about the mental aspect and how you view life differently now than you might have beforehand?

As I mentioned, I try to say positive because positivity impacts your recovery, and so I believe being positive will help me recover faster, and I really try to embodied that's the best of my ability. I'll also try to say a present, because all I can do is be in and now there's there's no telling and what can happen in the future, and the path already happened, So the power of presence has kept me grounded.

How has it changed your life with your family? You said you're spending time together now that you work. Beforehand, you wrote this book because of the notes that your mom took. What was it in those notes that struck you most about that time?

You don't remember, Hm, it was so beautiful pouring through those notes. It was such a touching experience and intimate experience that I got shared with my mom in going through that together, like going through the physical notes together and actually reliving the memories of like what had happened to me through her through her notes. It was very intimate and we got to share a lot together through that.

Through that process, how anxiety has been has been part of what you've had to deal with. Right, you don't know what tomorrow holds, You don't remember a lot of things exactly, how you don't How have you dealt with that? Because it seems like in this day and age, especially among young people, anxiety is as high as it's ever been.

Yeah. Hm, that's a good question. I think the way that I deal with that is again through being present. And all I can do is be present. I mean, I can be future oriented, and that would be that's really unfortunate because even no control over what's going to happen, and when you're in the past, you're just in the past. And so I try to say as much in the present as possible, And that's why it overcome anxiety. Is like whenever I think of what if I bring myself back to now, let.

Me ask you about this, people, I think. I think I was reading about you did you did you get a and philosophy? Yes, How do you think that's impacted the way that you've addressed your recovery?

Oh my god, it's been so helpful because I was a very spiritual person before this happened, and so I've used my spiritual practice like affirmations, visualizations, meditations, et cetera, to basically like root into the deeper into those practices to get me through this time.

What is like, go ahead?

I was going to say, like the power of positivity is how I get through it all every day, like being positive and reciting these affirmations and visualizing myself in perfect health even though it now the fact that I see myself there means it's going to happen. I really believe that.

How is that visual that that philosophy different now than it was before the stroke? Though? Because you'd had your age for I don't know, almost ten years, I guess before the stroke.

Because I had never had to put into practice right, this stroke was a big test. It's a really big test and a life it's like a life alternate event obviously, and it's really tested my ability to practice these things that I it's like walking a walk and just talking to talk. Yeah, I'm working the walk right now.

Let me ask you this, what advice do you have for someone who's loved one is going through what you are going through? Obviously everybody that has a stroke is affected differently, their recovery is different. But what advice would you have for a loved one of somebody dealing with their recovery from a stroke.

I would say, be patient with yourself and your loved one. It's a process. It takes time. Growth is incremental, like view the growth in incremental stages. It's not going to happen all at once. It takes time to process and be patient with yourself and be patient with the person and just be loving. The more love you can show them, the better their their recovery is going to be.

What about for those who are recovering from a stroke who might listen to this conversation or or read the book.

I would say, be gentle if yourself, be patient with yourself, show yourself grace, be kind yourself, be loving to yourself. It's a journey, not the process is the journey.

What about those what about those times where during your recovery you don't see a lot of progress. You feel like you've hit a wall and this is as good as it's going to get. How do you move past that?

I let myself wallow. Oh, I don't wallow. Actually that's not not true. I let myself cry for a bit, and then I don't wallow. I get up and move on the next day, the next couple of days. I mean, because I feel hopeless sometimes. But I can just do that for a moment, But if I do it for too long, I wallow. And I thought, Okay, what would you.

Like somebody to take away from our conversation or the book.

That you have the power within you to choose to create your narrative and that you can create life on your own terms, Like the power is in your hands to create your reality. Yeah.

I love what you said earlier, that you always have the pen, you can always write the next chapter. I think that's beautiful, exact.

Thank you.

Yeah. Her name is Jennifer Rose Goldman. The book is titled in the Face of Catastrophe, How a traumatic brain injury Became a Blessing. The website for the book is in the Face of Catastrophe dot com. Uh, Jen, thank you so much for sharing your time, your story, and best of luck and your continued recovery.

Thank you so much for having me.

Severe bleeding from trauma is a leading cause of preventable death for people of all ages in our country. Experts estimate that thousands of lives could be saved every year with just faster access to trauma care, including applying bleeding control techniques at the scene of the injury. Let's discuss it with doctor Carlos Plasio with the American College of Surgeons and the Stop the Bleed Program. Doctor Polosio, I appreciate the time, Thanks so much.

Thank you, manie, thank you for having me. And yeah, you're right. Thousands of lives on losses each year due to severe bleeding, and people tend to think that this is not going to happen to them, But the truth of the matter is that it can happen to anyone, and it can happen anywhere, from a simple kitchen injury to something more devastating, so just crash injuries and perhaps

Yeah, I want to ask you about the whole stop the Bleed program and stop the bleed dot org in a moment. But how how common is a bleeding emergency?

It's very common. As I said, people tend to think it's not absent. It several times in my during my career, multiple multiple times I would say, and it can go anywhere, it can. You know, people tend to think that they're safe at home, but there are things in your home that can harm you as well. And when this accident happens, you need to be ready to act not only to you, but it can also happen to any of your loved ones as well.

And people tend to think that that a you know, if you cut yourself or you have some sort of a bleeding event, it's only dangerous if it's your carotid artery or somewhere in your chest. But really, you could bleed out in a lot of areas of your body, can't you.

Absolutely, And if it's of course, you know more than sixty five year old people, they tend to okay, well I'll be fine, but that little oozing, little by little, it's gonna cause some damage. It could also happen to a young one. Some people you know, young people and I'll be fine, don't worry about it. They go to bed and then they wake up in a pool of blood. So it's very important to be knowledgeable on how to prevent this kind of death.

Yeah, and we've seen too often in our country these events, mass shootings for example, happened much more often than we would realize or we would like to admit. And that's really where the whole Stop the Bleed movement and Stop the Bleed dot org started, isn't it?

That is correct? So it is started like that because they realized in the studies after the mass shooting that the people who died of exagmination, meaning a lot of blood would leave their body and there was nowhere either a kid or a way to help that person stop the bleed. So it basically empowers the population to be ready to stop the bleed because remember, the thing needs to be clear by the police before EMS can get there, and that can take up to thirty minutes to an

And so this is no different than for example, the Red Cross learning how to do CPR or something like that, and everybody can kind of take these basic training courses to learn how to stop the bleed.

That is actually correct. If we're going to do the parallel, this would be that equivalent. That's skill that we need to learn, that it's effective and that can save lives as well.

What is for example, in a stop the bleed kit, what are the key components and how do they help individually in a bleeding emergency.

Definitely, so the kid has gousses and that has there is also an special gus that is going to be able to coagulate your blood when you're when you're bleeding, so meaning it's going to slow down even further that that bleeding when it happened. It also has shears trauma shears as we call them, so that you can remove or cut those gems and access where the where the bleeding is happening more expedadly. And then it also has

Have a few more minutes here with doctor Carlos Palassio. He's of the American College of Surgeons. We are talking about stop the bleed, to stop the bleed movement and stop the bleed dot org. What are what are for example, the three main techniques that you teach in and stop the bleed training.

Yeah. So the first one is apply pressure, and we tell you how to apply pressure. Some people tend to think that it's just put in your hand and that's it. Now you're going to use piece of gauz apply pressure. The next one is we teach you how to open that wound very delicate and pack it. You know, there is a way that we teach them how to do that. It's not just shove a piece of gauz or a piece of cloth in it. There is a way, appropriate way to do it. And finally, how to apply to tournique.

Like learning CPR or the Heimlich maneuver. A lot of this counts on somebody, you know, being somewhere seeing something happen and then being a good samaritan. How does that play into everything? Somebody doing the right thing.

That is correct. It's just doing the right thing for one another and help each other out whenever we're a victim of one of these accidents.

Talk to me about the Stop the Bleed initiative and what really what the primary goal of NASH Stop the Bleed Month is all about.

Yeah, it's just preventable that making sure that people have that knowledge necessary to act whenever it's necessary for your loved one, for another person. We have all the information and the stopd Bleed dot org slash Save the lives. We not only have the information for the kids, but also we have what are the classes available? That calendar telling you, okay, well we have classes here and there.

What about schools? Is to stop the bleed program in schools as well?

Definitely, yes, we the trauma centers have a duty and we do go and teach the school especially the teachers, how to apply these principles of pressure backing and turniquet to the kids in case that something horrible where to happen?

I mentioned the website is stop the Bleed dot org Stop the Bleed do o RG and that's where you can find these training classes. What is one of these classes? Like, what exactly do we learn?

Yeah, we have mannequins, We have of course the kid We explain you what are the key components, each one by one a little bit more detailed to what I give you here. We go through the steps of how to stop the bleeding case something where to happen with the mannequins, so you get familiar with what is going on. A lot of people tend to freeze when they see blood, but that's not the case. That's what we're teaching you.

What do do you find that people have misconceptions about bleeding out, how to control bleeding and stuff like that, then maybe the Stop the Bleed Program addresses.

I think people sometimes tend to look to the other side. People are concerns if they're going to get sued or things like that for helping out, but I don't think that's the case. There is always the good from Samaritan law that prevents that from happening. You're trying to do the right thing for the patient. I think that's one of the main things that people tend to be more scare of when we teach the courses. That's what they ask the most.

Tell me a little bit about the Stop the Bleed program itself, How did it originate? Why did it originate? How has it grown?

Yeah? So it's worldwide right now and we have taught thousand and of people. And you know, it started because of the mass shootings. Some of the that they were prevented it was it was an artery on the extremity or a vein, and the help was not there. So by developing the course, which included pressure backing and tourniquets, uh, the college UH wanted to prevent that in those situations and then it evolved uh into what we have today. UH. And it also empowers the civilians. And as I said,

Talk to me about how you hope that listeners are maybe community leaders who might be listening get involved and promote support the whole Stop the Bleed initiative.

Yeah. I really think that by doing this campaign, it's really get the words out some people don't know that this technique exists, and some people they want to learn, they just don't know where to go. So I really think that by getting the word out and making sure that we all know that the course exists, it's already developed, I think it's going to attract the attention of the

About how long do these courses take.

It's usually less than an hour, but if I'm inn used to an hour depending and it's free, there is no charge for it. Uh. So sometimes you can also go to your trauma centers. They have we have the duty to teach uh stop the bleed and uh that also that is also a possibility.

Can we close it out with one maybe an anecdote, a success story, a real life example you're familiar with where the stop the bleed training has saved the life.

Yeah, absolutely so. I had a case that was probably a few years ago. It was actually somebody that was cutting some tree branches and he accidentally got hurt on the arm and then he failed, so that you can imagine it was it was not only the stop the bleed, but also it was the fall in the fallen injury, and then the wife called nine one one. A PD

Yeah, first responders aren't going to be there always are or at the moment's notice, so it takes a good samaritan to save a life. Doctor Carlos Palassio with the American College of Surgeons the website you could go to to find out more information or where you could take the class Stop the Bleed dot org. Stop the Bleed dot o RG. Doctor Palasio, thanks so much for what you're doing with this, Thank you for the information and for your time. Best of luck.

Thank you so much.

Thank you so much money, and that'll do it. For another edition of Iheartradios Communities. I'm Manny Muno's until next time.