My college dizzy spells & headaches were because I’d had stroke
Student Amy’s warning after falling ill at just 23
I urge everyone if they feel unwell at all to get checked out AMY MCSWEENEY YESTERDAY
A YOUNG civil engineer was stunned when she discovered a “dizzy spell” and headaches in college meant she had actually suffered a stroke.
Amy Mcsweeney was just 23 when the medical emergency happened, which doctors say was caused by a combination of an undiagnosed autoimmune condition and two undetected holes in her heart.
The now 25-year-old, who is on blood thinners for life, is urging anyone who feels unwell to see a GP, no matter what age they are.
Amy from Swords, Co Dublin, who now lives in Drogheda, Co Louth, said: “I was in the middle of my college class in February 2022 when I got a sharp pain in my head, my vision became blurred, I was dizzy and I lost my balance. I’m the kind of person who could have my arm hanging off and I wouldn’t go to the doctor but eventually, my mam and my boyfriend persuaded me to go.
“The GP made me close my eyes and when I did, I started falling backwards so I was sent to the Emergency Department in the Beaumont Hospital for a CT scan.
“Medics told me that the test showed I had either a bleed on the brain, a tumour or a stroke but I was very young for a stroke.
“I was admitted to hospital on a Friday and a few days later I was told I had suffered a stroke. I just couldn’t believe it. I was only 23 years old. You often hear strokes affecting people much older.
“More tests determined that I was born with two holes in my heart and an autoimmune disease called antiphospholipid syndrome. It was a perfect storm. The autoimmune disease creates blood clots and my heart couldn’t stop them.
“I had also been on the contraceptive pill for seven years, which adds to the risks of clots and I had experienced them during my monthly menstrual cycle.
“It took months to diagnose the autoimmune disease because I had to have a number of blood tests carried out at intervals. I always had a really high heart rate but I just thought that was normal in some people, I never assumed anything else could be wrong.
“I had heart surgery in that September in Dublin’s Mater Hospital to close the holes in my heart as well.
“Thankfully I survived it all. The stroke affected the part of my brain that controls balance and vision and nausea so there is some damage there.
“I still can get a little unstable at times but I’m on medication and blood thinners to help.
“I have siblings but medics say both conditions that I have aren’t genetic so they don’t have to be tested for them.
“I didn’t think I could have a stroke at 23 years old and I put off going to the GP for a week after it.
“Not everyone will be that lucky so I’d urge everyone if they feel unwell at all to get checked out.
“Listen to your body, because I nearly didn’t.”