I was scheduled to play in an early morning golf tournament in south Stuart. I arrived at the course early enough to do some chipping and putting warm up before the round began. Walking across the street to the chipping area, I noticed my left heel was not striking the ground properly. I had no other symptoms, so I stayed about 30 minutes and then walked back to the course, still having the heel issue.
I decided not to play and, on the way home I drove past Martin South Hospital. I decided to call our doctor. Very fortunately for me, his nurse Linda Tilus answered the call.
I told Linda my symptoms and she said “you are describing classic stroke symptoms.” I replied with “they were not classic symptoms to me and that I had never heard of a weak heel being a stroke symptom”. She countered that muscle weakness is indeed a stroke warning and I should park my car in a safe location, call 911 and go directly to the ER and I assured her I would.
She said OK and advised me that she will alert the hospital of my arrival in 25 minutes. Linda did call to alert the staff of my arrival, and as I walked through the ER door, I was greeted by a team who asked my name then guided me into a small room 10 feet from the ER entrance. They had me hooked up to an EKG machine in less than 30 seconds, then a doctor came and had me set up for a long battery of tests that occupied the rest of the day.
By the end of the day, the doctor advised that I had suffered a TIA, but would likely recover fully in 24 to 72 hours. In fact, when I woke up the next morning, I was 100% symptom free. However, the tests revealed I had a 55% blockage of my right carotid artery and a 90% blockage of the left carotid artery.
Linda very likely saved my life. She has given me an opportunity to repair the defective arteries and to lead a productive and long life. Linda represents everything that is good about nurses and the call of nursing. I owe her a huge debt of gratitude, and Cleveland Clinic is a better organization because of her.