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Stroke survivor raises awareness
By Janice Youngwith
Wednesday, February 6, 2008
Brady Johnson says he is a man on a mission.
"If it can happen to me, stroke can happen to anyone," says the 35-year-old Social Security Administration claims adjustor and minister at Elgin's Progressive Baptist Church. "As an active, healthy and young African-American professional, stroke was the farthest thing from my mind."
Johnson says the unimaginable happened four years ago at the age of 31 during his monthly Illinois Air National Guard training weekend.
Like many young African Americans, the former high school athlete, Northwood University business management graduate and Air Force veteran says stroke is something he never thought could happen to him.
"I'd had a headache since December, but didn't think too much of it," recalls the Kentucky native. "I'd just relocated to Chicago's western suburbs, had gotten engaged to my girlfriend, Heather, on Christmas Eve, was working as a corporate and community development director for Judson College in Elgin and beginning to plan a wedding. There was an abundance of stress."
'The headache just wouldn't go away'
Johnson says he'll never forget the exceptionally cold March weekend when he reported for his monthly guard duty. He remembers completing a Friday workout and running six miles before departing for his weekend commitment. "The headache just wouldn't go away and nothing seemed to work," he recalls. "It got really bad at night and sometimes I thought I could hear water running in my ear."
Suspecting an ear infection, Johnson recalls asking a base doctor for an over-the-counter pain relieving pill. But the doctor asked a few pointed questions and recommended Johnson immediately be evaluated at an off-base Peoria hospital.
Following an MRI and other tests, doctors explained the seriousness of his condition in terms Johnson could easily understand.
"They told me 'Houston, we have a problem' and I knew it must be serious," recalls the former high school baseball star who had once been invited to work out with the Chicago White Sox organization.
"They explained how the running water I kept hearing in my left ear was actually bleeding in my brain."
Johnson was transferred to the UIC Hospital where surgeons operated to stop the bleeding and removed both scar tissue and a cyst. Extended family, including his mother, grandmother and older sister, rushed from Kentucky and Ohio to his bedside.
"The question on the tip of everyone's tongue was 'why?'" he says. "I had no significant cardiovascular history, was healthy and just getting my life started. No one ever thought this would happen to me."
Johnson's family history
As the "baby" of the family, Johnson says he didn't take life seriously until stumbling upon an Air Force recruiter at Elgin Community College.
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Stroke: Know the risks,
know the signs
Each year 780,000 people have a new or recurrent stroke. In people over 55, the lifetime risk for stroke is greater than one in six.
Protect yourself and your family. Know your stroke risks and know the stroke warning signs.
Stroke risk factors
High blood pressure
Smoking
Diabetes
Carotid artery disease
Atrial fibrillation
Sickle cell disease
Obesity
Physical inactivity
High blood cholesterol
TIA or "mini-stroke"
Age
Race
Family history
Gender
Stroke warning signs
Sudden numbness or weakness of the face, arm or leg, especially on one side of the body
Sudden confusion, trouble speaking or understanding
Sudden trouble seeing in one or both eyes
Sudden trouble walking, dizziness, loss of balance or coordination
Sudden severe headache with no known cause
If you or anyone around you experiences any of these symptoms, call 911 immediately. Time lost is brain lost.
Log on to strokeassociation.org or call (888) 4-STROKE for more information on stroke risk factors and how to keep risk factors under control.
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"I'd bounced around in college, partied, received an academic probation and eventually was kicked out of school at one point," recalls Johnson, the son of an English literature college professor. "I made my way to Illinois to visit my dad, worked in a factory, slept on friends' sofas and at age 22, finally got serious about an education."
Nearly 50 pounds overweight, Johnson says his first six weeks of basic training helped him slim down and get his life back on track.
He took an interest in physical fitness and began running six to seven miles every day, a training protocol that helped him compete in several Kentucky Run for the Roses marathon events.
Johnson served his country in a variety of locations, but a terrorist bombing in Saudi Arabia in 1996 changed his life as a roadside bomb exploded along his favorite evening running path.
Because flight line repairs had delayed his evening run, Johnson was spared, but determined it was time to opt out. He later joined the Kentucky Air National Guard and finished his business degree.
Following graduation, Johnson worked as a sports agent, started a company called Workers for Christ and pursued motivational speaking opportunities throughout Kentucky and Ohio. He became a minister in 1997 and was ordained in 1999 in the Baptist Church.
Determination & the recovery process
Because the stroke was on the left side of his brain, Johnson says he lost all movement on the right side of his body. The ensuing 12 months were spent at Marianjoy Rehabilitation Hospital, Wheaton, and Sherman Hospital, Elgin, learning to do everything from scratch. He needed to retrain his muscles in order to speak, relearn a number of daily living skills such as how to eat, feed himself and to walk.
As a former athlete and military man, Johnson says he wasn't about to quit and challenged himself daily to do more and more.
"I'm actually very blessed," the minister and motivational speaker says. "Many people who suffer a left-sided stroke lose their ability to speak. That's not my case. For me, articulation is very clear. Unfortunately, I still can't feel anything on my right side."
Johnson, a former marathon runner who currently works out in his basement with weights and on the elliptical machine, says he compensates by copying left-sided movements on his right.
He's able to work a 40 hour week and reports he is back to running 10K races and chasing after his 17-month-old son, Brayden.
Johnson says he hopes to use his experience to raise awareness and alert others that stroke is a serious medical situation for which every second counts.
"Many parishioners at Progressive Baptist saw me first as an athletic young man," Johnson says.
"When they next saw me in the hospital or five months later when I returned to the pulpit, I knew they were in shock. My experience frightened everyone and serves as a wake up call that stroke can happen to anyone."
In hopes of sharing his experience, Johnson says he turned on the computer and reached out to the American Heart Association, learning of their Power To End Stroke initiative and pledge.
About stroke
According to the American Stroke Association, a division of the American Heart Association, stroke is the third-leading cause of death, behind heart disease and cancer, and a leading cause of long-term disability. It accounts for one of every 16 deaths and claims a life every three to four minutes.
Best described as a form of cardiovascular disease affecting arteries of the central nervous system, stroke frequently is referred to as a brain attack. The National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke ranks stroke as the leading serious neurological disorder in the United States.
They describe stroke as a disruption of blood supply to or within the brain. When blood is cut off, the brain fails to receive oxygen and nutrients necessary for survival, resulting in permanent injury.
As the nerve center of the body, as brain cells are injured or die from a lack of oxygen, body functions controlled by those injured cells are affected and cause impairment.
For more information on stroke or to complete a confidential risk assessment detailing personal stroke risk, visit www.StrokeAssociation.org.
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