“Exactly What if I Reject It?” Maine’s Woman Shares a Survival Story After Having a Stroke Days After Giving Birth
PORTLAND, Maine – May is Stroke Awareness Month. As we prepare for the Maine Heart Walk in a few weeks, we hear from a recent stroke survivor.
Taryn Demuth had given birth just days before having a stroke. Her message to others is to seek medical attention if something feels wrong. She says you’re not a burden, and you never know what it might be. “I remember it being a really hot day and at the beginning of having a baby, it’s survival mode anyway,” she stated.
Demuth is in her 30s, has no prior health difficulties, and has had two successful pregnancies. But two weeks after giving birth to her second son, she realized something was wrong.
“I laid down and when I laid down, it was almost like I tweaked my neck kind of,” she said. “I just remember it because I just had these feelings, kind of cold feelings up the back of my head.” Her husband turned on a fan, fetched her a glass of water, and she felt better 10 minutes later.
“The instant I stood up, it was pure dizziness, and I had never had vertigo before,” she added, “but it was exactly as I expected it to feel; you simply felt inebriated beyond belief. “Everything was swirling. She could not walk or speak.
“I was like gravity is pulling me to the ground, but only on my left side,” she stated. “It always makes me sad to think about this because, even when something like this happens to you, you are thinking about your children. Are they safe? Is everything going to be okay with them? That was why I said, “We need to call 911 because it wasn’t even for me; it was for my kids.”
She claims she was transported to Maine Medical Center 30 minutes later.
“They performed a CT scan, which revealed that I suffered a stroke. “It was a vertebral artery dissection,” Demuth explained. “So, as I got into bed and laid down, I felt a tweak in my neck, which was caused by the artery dissecting. All the funny symptoms in the back of my neck were caused by a change in the blood flow in my neck, and then your body tries to clot to mend it, which is why I had a stroke 15 minutes later.”
According to Demuth, physicians diagnosed it as postpartum.
“What if I didn’t go in? What if I hadn’t been prescribed a blood thinner? “What if I ignore it?” She said. “I feel extremely lucky and sometimes even guilty that I don’t have the lingering effects that a lot of people have that have strokes.”
She is now taking low-dose aspirin on a daily basis and focusing on her physical and mental wellness. “You try to listen to your body, but you’re terrified. You’re genuinely afraid because now it feels like nothing is off the table.” She attends a therapist and is linked to other survivors via the American Heart Association.
Your heart bleeds to some extent because you despise the fact that anyone else experiences that kind of dread or worry, but it also makes you feel good that there is some solidarity that we can relate to these things and that it is natural to feel this way.”
Walking is one of the most effective ways she takes care of her physical health. Join the American Heart Association for the annual Maine Heart Walk on Sunday, May 19. WMTW is a proud sponsor. Registration begins at 8 a.m. on the day of the event, with activities beginning at about 9 a.m. at Portland’s Back Cove.