Survivor shares her stroke experiences

All throughout her life, Cheryl Delhagen, 51, had a close relationship with God. She credits Him with various interventions that otherwise could have resulted in disaster.

One time she was driving down Maryland Parkway when something told her to stop her car -- not at the red light ahead but right in the middle of the street. She did and then looked in her rearview mirror. What she saw horrified her.

A car was speeding toward her, chased by a number of police cruisers. As it neared, the car went into a skid then spun out of control. Delhagen ducked down in her seat expecting the worst.

She heard the tires stop squealing and peeked up over the dash to find the suspect's car stopped directly in front of her ... without even scratching her car.

Another time she was returning home late at night when she "knew" somebody was watching her. Sensing danger, she said a quick prayer asking for protection. She got inside her apartment safely, but not before seeing a man slinking around her apartment building.

More recently, in her career as a nurse, she was about to administer a pill to a patient when something told her, "Don't give that." She heeded the warning, checked the patient's chart and realized she'd been given the wrong medicine, a possibly lethal one.

Each time, she was given some kind of sign. But when she was 36, Delhagen ignored the signs. She was nearing the end of her shift at Sunrise Hospital when a headache hit.

"I thought, 'If this headache doesn't clear up soon, I might be having a stroke,' " she said. "But then I thought, 'Nah, it must just be my sinuses.' "

Then she noticed she was having difficulty following a patient's conversation. Again, she dismissed its importance.

She walked out to her car and something told her not to take the freeway. Instead of starting her car, she reached for her Bible and read aloud.

"I realized the words I was saying were not the words I was reading," she said. "That's when I saw a security guard and waved him over saying, 'I'm having a stroke.' "

Before he reached her, Delhagen collapsed, her legs barely able to support her. By the time she got to the emergency room, she lost the ability to talk.

A drug, tPA, is normally given to stroke patients within the first three hours of the episode but a CAT scan revealed Delhagen had an abnormal vessel in her brain. It also revealed she was bleeding inside her brain. Because of that, the tPA "would have killed me," she said.

Instead, she had surgery to clamp off the abnormal vessel which was siphoning blood away from her brain. She now has a horseshoe-shaped scar under her hairline and two clips permanently inside her head.

Recovery from the stroke proved difficult. For a long time Delhagen could not talk. Nor could she use her right hand. That necessitated an inventive solution, but one far from perfect.

"Can you imagine drawing pictures with your non-dominant hand?" she said with a laugh. "I'd draw something and the nurses would bring something else completely. It was more frustrating than scary."

Eventually, she regained the ability to talk but had to relearn things like numbers and spelling. She now is able to move her right side but must use a cane or a brace to walk. She still has issues with spasticity in her right arm and cognitive concerns.

John McNeil, director of the American Stroke Association's Operation Stroke, said stroke survivors often find it hard to come to grips with how it affects them day to day.

"The most difficult part is the depression," he said. "That and not being able to do all the things they used to do, being dependent on others. A lot of them break down and cry. They say, 'Why did this have to happen to me?' "

For Delhagen, the stroke took her from a career in nursing to one of volunteerism. She now counsels others who are dealing with stroke through the Stroke-Brain Injury Support Group. The group meets at Sunrise Hospital the first Wednesday of every month at 6 p.m. Delhagen used to lead the group but now lets someone else have the reins.

She also is involved in a Support Group/Bible Study at Central Christian Church, 1001 New Beginnings Drive. That group meets the second and fourth Wednesday of the month at 3:30 p.m.

Delhagen leads a human-rights group which sponsored her two-week missionary trip to Spain and Morocco. While there, she handed out 150 Bibles.

"In Morocco, it's illegal to give out Bibles," she said. "They say you're trying to change someone's religion. So I did it in a seaport where people take ferries."

Asked why God would let a stroke hit a nurse who helped people daily, she did not hesitate.

"I believe he wanted my life re-directed," she said. "I work with people who have disabilities and right away they can see something happened to me. So they (open up) to me and we get to talking and I always put in how God helped me."

May is Stroke Awareness Month. Operation Stroke, an initiative of the American Stroke Association, seeks to educate people on how to lower their risk and recognize the signs of an impending attack.

Stroke killed 163,538 people in 2001. It's the third largest cause of death and a leading cause of serious, long-term disability in the United States.

The American Stroke Association, 6370 W. Flamingo Road, is a division of the American Heart Association and offers a peer visitation program plus four stroke clubs. For more information, call 367-4430 or (888) 478-7653 or visit www.americanheart.org.


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