After a hospital told Stacey Yepes she was just stressed and sent her home, she recorded herself having a stroke as an example that it was more than stress. INSIDE EDITION reports.
It's an extraordinary moment as a woman records herself as she's having stroke. She has just left the hospital after being told she was okay, that all she was suffering from was stress.
In the video she recorded, she points to the left side of her face that started to droop, saying, "It's all tingly on the left side. The doctor said to breathe in, breathe out, manage your stress. I'm trying."
But 49-year-old Stacey Yepes realized it was much worse. She even remembered one of the tell-tale signs of a stroke—difficulty smiling. In the video she tried to smile, as only the right side of her face would smile and said, "The sensation is happening again. Smile, they said. And now I am taking pictures for an example of what was happening."
Somehow, Yepes managed to drive herself to a second hospital, where she showed them the video she had just taken on her cell phone.
Yepes told INSIDE EDITION, "The whole left side of my body went numb. My speech was slurred, my face was drooping and I was extremely dizzy."
Watch INSIDE EDITION's Interview with Yepes
Thankfully, she is now recovering.
Yepes said, "They put me on medicine after doing an MRI and confirming that in fact, I had a stroke."
Dr. Steven Reisman says Yepes did exactly the right thing. Reisman told INSIDE EDITION, "The top few symptoms that a stroke patient may have are change in speech. They may feel numbness or lack of motion on one side of the body. They may have difficulty with fine movement. They might have difficulty with sensation, where one part of the body is numb versus another part."
INSIDE EDITION's April Woodard asked Yepes, "Would you say that having a cell phone saved your life?"
Yepes replied, "Aboslutely. In this case, yes."
See more information on guidelines to help women prevent a stoke from the National Stroke Association.
