Marian and her TIA

Marian and her TIA

When Marian's arm went weak, she turned to her husband for help.

Tauranga’s Marian was in bed with her husband Gordon, scrolling through news sites on their iPads when Marian's arm suddenly went limp and dropped on the bed.

In a slurred voice, she turned to Gordon and said: "I think I'm having a stroke."

The pair recognised the symptoms because they’d recently seen TV ads for the FAST stroke awareness campaign.

Gordon knew it was a medical emergency and rang 111. By the time the ambulance got to their house 10 minutes later, Marian had recovered.

But as Gordon spoke to the ambulance staff, Marian called out that she was having a second stroke - and then fall to the floor.

Marian had another episode in the ambulance, and another at Tauranga hospital.

It turned out she’d had a series of TIAs (transient ischaemic attack) – often called mini or warning strokes.

Marian was back home after three days in hospital and has recovered very well.

The pair say that if they hadn't seen the FAST ads the outcome could have been very different.

"Who knows whether that ad saved my life or not but we are extremely grateful that we had seen it many times and did what it said to do," Marian says.

Marian was so grateful, she appeared in a TV3 news story about heart attack and stroke, was profiled in a fund-raising appeal, and is on the cover of our information pamphlet about TIAs.

We’re extremely pleased we were able to help Marian, and equally grateful for her kind support.

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