She had a stroke!
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Archived from the IMDb Discussion Forums — Lynn-Holly Johnson
andybob-3 — 13 years ago(March 13, 2013 04:57 AM)
I stumbled upon this interview on Youtube, fortunately she seems to have recovered from it pretty good:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y5tgK79rlmg -
Andy2007 — 12 years ago(March 28, 2014 01:47 PM)
I found a more recent interview:
http://voices.yahoo.com/lynn-holly-johnson-12578297.html?cat=5 -
Andy2007 — 12 years ago(March 29, 2014 04:28 AM)
I'll paste some of it:
January 4, 2010, the end of a flight from Atlanta to John Wayne, southern California, my Mom grabbed my shoulders and pleaded, "why aren't you talking?" Everyone was off the plane including flight attendants, the last part I know is trying to figure out how to get off the plane. Then my brain shut down. The damage had started yet no one knew. Not even me. I clung to my dad's arm, trying to navigate my way to baggage claim. For me it was balance, but my dad didn't know.
The blood clots in my brain blocked all the oxygen. I was suffocating, as I kept falling over bags while 300 people around me busily retrieved their own luggage. In 2 minutes I was incoherent, my starving brain was shut down and my mom yelled "get her to the E.R." I was carried into Hoag Hospital where immediately they yelled "Code 20". My dad and husband were told that meant 'stroke victim' as the frantic eerie scene began. I was whisked away for tests. A blood clot rested on the right side of my brain. 2 more emboli were parked in the middle cerebral artery where they say 3 out of 10 people die.
My Dad, fighting his own cancerous war could not grasp the insanity of losing his daughter first. They talked about TPA, the clot busting drug but that is only safe given within 4.5 hours of the onset, beyond that it could burst an artery causing death. I laid there, nearly comatose, eyes vacant, when they tried to calculate the onset.
They discussed the journey to find conclusions and timing. They told the docs I had to carry my 60 lb, 3-legged dog in and out of the airport. When I got on the plane I was sweating profusely and said I felt strange. Then during the flight I had very loud hiccups, and at some point my arm was flailing around, but no one knew the timing. The doctors found a hole in my heart, a PFO, when I hiccuped at some point during the flight, it put pressure on that hole allowing clots to shoot through and go straight to my brain.
Still, they could not determine the exact timing of the onset. The decision was carefully made. The clot-busting drug, TPA is too risky, they told my husband we'll wait and hope.
Intense hours go by, the doctors are continually asking me "what is your name, what year is it?" I showed no awareness, eyes glossed over, no sounds. They continued to push and ask, all night long. Then in the wee hours of the morning as they strived to get some life out of me, they ask again, "what is your name?" still nothing, "what year is it?" this time, I mumbled "1968." They pointed to my husband and said "who is this man?" I muttered "boyfriend". The doctor smiled and said "there you go, you got your gal back!" My husband of 18 years grinned and melted.
I was in the hospital for a week. Talking, chewing, walking were fine but the clots that migrated to the left side locked all file cabinets, my memory skills were lost. My husband said I was like an etch-a-sketch, with an elaborate drawing of my life, but someone flipped it over and shook. When they told me I had a stroke, I wasn't sad, I had no comprehension of what that meant, nor did I care. I was a blank etch-a-sketch. -
Andy2007 — 12 years ago(March 29, 2014 04:30 AM)
There is definitely no "bouncing back" after a stroke. It is a long slow process to get the plasticity of the brain to recover to some extent. I had one full year of cognitive therapy. Isn't this typical, an actress talking about therapy but in the Acquired Brain Injury Program certain tests put me in the Severely Impaired category.
I plowed through running a brain marathon everyday to exhaustion. My challenges are all within memory and linearly thinking. When I was in the hospital, every few hours Dr. Brown would ask me to tell him as many animals as I could in one minute. I came up with 4. Then he would ask me to spell out loud the word "world" backwards. I kept thinking if I had a piece of paper I could write it down for him and he could 2000put it in his pocket and study it whenever he needs to see how that word looks backwards. I thought I could help him! That is textbook left mind injury. I had no ability to think linearly, to know what he was doing.
My right mind took over with all of its "comme si comme ca" joyful thoughts, they say the right mind promotes blissfulness. My left mind, all about numbers, letter, language and the memory file cabinets needed to find the key. I had to learn the age of my 2 children, their birthday, my birthday, my phone number, etc etc. Each day I needed to learn what happened the day before, even one hour before. Numbers which are usually my forte actually looked like worms crawling on a page! -
Andy2007 — 11 years ago(May 15, 2014 01:44 PM)
The interview link has stopped working. According to Wikipedia, Yahoo! Voices was shut down in July 2014.
Fortunately, I found a reproduction:
Q: Being on a plane when this happened, do you blame air travel for things such as blood clots? Have you been afraid to travel by plane since then, for fear of recurring blood clots and strokes?
I can't blame air travel at all. My blood was clotting for some reason, it was like a perfect storm for me. There was concern for my dad, carrying my 60lb dog back and forth in the airport, deep hiccups, a cross country flight and throw in a stroke and a PFO as the hurricane. Now I have had the heart surgery and I will remain a stroke survivor! Oddly, I was hesitant to fly for a year prior to the stroke, never knew why. Some innate feeling? I'll never know. But I sure was lucky. That was it, my perfect storm and now I am sailing on with fair winds and following seas!
Q: You are a spokesperson for the American Heart Association. What are your key points?
I wanted everyone to be aware of a PFO and other heart risks. 23% of the population has a PFO! Percentages of having a stroke and heart attack dramatically increases when there is a PFO and atrial fibrillation. I was lucky. If that stroke had started any earlier on the flight I would not be walking or talking, or even on the planet! I want people to be aware of stroke and to recognize a stroke. A person may seem odd or perhaps tipsy, yet it could be a devastating stroke, with every second thousands of brain cells dying.
I've been all over the world, traveling mostly by myself. This stroke could've happened skiing in a blizzard in Argentina, roaming Ho Chi Minh City at night after working on a movie or sailing the Tasman Sea. No one would have saved me even if I was in a big city. She can't walk. She can't talk. She must be drunk, leave that girl alone. That is what people must have thought at John Wayne Airport. My goal is to change that scenario. I did not want to lose a year of my life. Some have lost many more years of life, and others, their life is completely turned upside down. -
Andy2007 — 11 years ago(August 14, 2014 07:20 AM)
Q: Have you had to change your diet due to your stroke?
I've always had a very healthy diet. I don't even like fats at all. The stroke had nothing to do with my diet. Many people think a stroke is because a person is overweight, a smoker, or an alcoholic. That is a fallacy. The reason I am a spokesperson for the AHA is to get people to understand that point exactly.
At 51 years old I went in for my first cardiac check-up. As a nationally ranked athlete, marathoner, low blood pressure, low cholesterol, slow heart rate, I just breezed through all those cardiac tests. The problem was my dad's doctor should have been specific about my dad's PFO and stroke. I should have grabbed that technician when he was doing the echocardiogram and said, "You must scrutinize for a PFO, my dad has it, my dad had a stroke, and my dad had an atrial fib!" Unfortunately I was not that adamant. Six months later, I had a stroke.
People need to be clear, full of information, and specific when they go i1354n to see their doctor. It is your time in that office, make it feel like your Olympics. Tell that doctor everything!
A year after my stroke, my brother who is a commercial airline pilot had a very tingly arm. He went to the ER and the same frantic eerie scene began with him. Yes, they found a PFO. How would you like to be on his flight, high above the earth locked in a metal cylinder with your captain's arm flying around uncontrollably? And my brother thought the airline medical check-up cleared him! Now he has had the same surgery as me, the PFO is locked shut!