03.07.2021 – 13:19
Always in the game for a new challenge, Andrea started running with a friend in her small town. She really liked it, she registered for a 5000 m race. Then another – and so on.
“I try to improve every time, even if it’s 10 seconds,” she said. “It makes me feel good.”
This competitive spirit served her for the most difficult challenge of life: Healing from a severe stroke five days after birth.
Andrea and her husband, Martini, were excited about the arrival of their first child last spring. The pregnancy was relatively unclear until the last three weeks, when Andreas’ blood pressure began to rise. She developed preeclampsia, a form of high blood pressure during pregnancy that affects the mother’s liver and kidneys.
The doctor scheduled a birth 12 days in advance. After two days of waiting, her daughter, Emma, was born by caesarean section.
As is usually the case with preeclampsia, blood pressure returned to normal after she was born. However, less than a week later, she woke up with a migraine. Despite what he tried, the headache got worse.
Worried, Martin took him to the emergency room. Along the way, Andrea had a torturous feeling that something exploded in her head.
“On a scale of 1 to 10, the pain was plus 10,” she said.
It is the last thing she remembers before she lost consciousness.
At the hospital, doctors found that she had suffered a hemorrhagic stroke and rushed to transfer her to another better-equipped institution to treat cases like hers.
Before she was taken to the ambulance, a doctor told Martin that most people in her condition did not survive. Andrea was 34 at the time.
Doctors at the other hospital were able to surgically repair the brain damage. She was left in a medication-induced coma to help the body recover from stroke trauma and surgery. After 12 days, she returned to herself.
When Andrea arrived at a rehab hospital, she could not even sit on her own. Speaking was extremely difficult. He could not write and tried to identify everyday objects like an apple. Many times, he could not remember if a boy or a girl had been born.
“I cried a lot,” she said.
Things seemed even more difficult when the doctor told the couple that if she were to get pregnant again, she could face the same kind of complications.
While the couple intended to have another child, Andrea was comforted by the fact that it was “set for me”.
“It was hard to hear,” she said.
As difficult as things may seem, Andrea knew from training and the small steps she took each day could make a big difference.
For example, when she learned to read again, she pronounced each word, progressing from word to sentence. Then in whole books. She made the same kind of progress using her arms and legs, speaking and writing.
There were some obstacles along the way.
Almost exactly on one anniversary of the shock, another crisis left him unable to speak. It hardly helped that doctors had warned that she was at higher risk for seizures until the brain was completely healed.
In fact, when Andrea heard about a 5000m race, she convinced Martin that they should register.
Martin marvels at Andreas healing, knowing that her competitive spirit will push him to continue erasing her limitations.
“She is inspiring,” he said.
Determined to do something positive from her experience, Andrea gladly shares the story with others.
“My story can help another person,” she said. “I want people to know that there is still hope.”