This Canadian beauty queen couldn't believe she was having a stroke at 23: ‘The possibility...was completely out of the question'
Samantha Gomez never imagined she'd have a stroke — even when she was actively experiencing one. One morning in February of 2017, Gomez was hustling around the house getting ready for work. It was a routine morning for the 23-year-old — except it was taking her longer than usual to shower and get dressed. Things took a turn in the kitchen, when she went to pour herself a bowl of cereal.
'I completely missed the bowl,' Gomez, now 32, tells Yahoo Canada. 'At that point, my coordination was completely out the window.'
After she tidied up the cereal that littered the countertop, Gomez turned her attention to starting her car. But she couldn't find the keys.
'I still did not clue in that something was wrong, I was just so rushed to get to work,' she remembers eight years later.
Gomez called her now-husband, Rob, to ask if he took her keys, but the words weren't coming out right. 'I kept asking him, 'Where are my limes?' Instead of saying 'keys,' I kept saying 'limes,'" she says.
On the other end of the phone, her partner was getting concerned. Upstairs, her dad overheard Gomez getting upset.
I kept asking him, 'Where are my limes?' Instead of saying keys, I kept saying lime.Samantha Gomez
'My dad came downstairs and said 'What's going on?'" Gomez recalls. 'That's when it dawned on me something was wrong. No one is understanding me.'
As her dad called 911, panic settled in. By the time an ambulance arrived at the Bradford, Ont. home, Gomez could not speak at all. 'My speech was completely gone,' she says. 'I felt sick, nauseous and very very confused.'
It turns out Gomez was experiencing the first symptoms of a severe ischemic stroke. A blood clot or blockage was disrupting blood flow to the brain, and it was affecting her speech and coordination. After being rushed to the nearest hospital, and then transferred to another, doctors confirmed the diagnosis: at just 23, Gomez had suffered a stroke.
After recovering, Gomez participated in the 2018 Mrs. Universe Canada pageant, a platform she used to bring much-needed awareness to strokes — especially in young people. Even in the midst of her own medical emergency, a stroke was the last thing on her mind.
'The awareness for strokes, especially in young people, it's just not there,' Gomez says. 'The possibility of having a stroke was completely out of the question.'
The reality is, strokes can happen to people of any age. According to a new report funded by the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada, about one in 20 strokes in Canada occur in people under 45, and emerging evidence points to young women being at higher risk than young men. Even babies and toddlers can have strokes, though diagnosis of stroke in newborns and children is often delayed.
'Stroke is not a condition of elderly people anymore,' says Dr. Aleksandra Pikula, chair of stroke prevention and cerebrovascular brain health at the University of Toronto and the Krembil Brain Institute at Toronto Western Hospital. Pikula says stroke cases in younger people — particularly those under 45 — have increased by nearly 15 per cent in the decade.
Stroke is not a condition of elderly people anymore.Dr. Aleksandra Pikula
'That's a pretty dramatic number,' she says. 'This young population also has a much higher rate of traditional risk factors, such as high blood pressure, diabetes, obesity, alcohol use and drug use.'
This is the case globally, the doctor says, including in high-income countries like Canada, the United States and in Europe.
'We can dissect that into what's happening specifically for women, and we are seeing that women aged 35 and younger have 44 per cent more likelihood to have an ischemic stroke than their male peers,' she adds.
Researchers are trying to understand why, with some studies looking at the link between oral contraceptives and stroke.
'It seems that explains part of it,' Pikula agrees. 'We see that combined oral contraceptives can triple the risk of some types of ischemic stroke in young women.' She also adds that risk factors for stroke are even higher for women who smoke, have migraines with aura, have high blood pressure or have abdominal obesity.
Prevention is key, Pikula says, and she advises people of all ages to to be checked for common risk factors for stroke and heart conditions, given that up to 80 per cent of strokes are preventable with lifestyle changes — which include healthy nutrition, stress management and around 20 minutes of daily physical activity.
While Pikula says "signs of strokes are pretty unified between men and women," she adds that there are some "typical presentations for women."
"They come with more headaches, with more confusion, with more dizziness, with more chest tightness," she explains.
Sometimes, those symptoms can be dismissed if classic stroke symptoms aren't as severe.
'If you're doubting if this is something serious or not, it's better to be checked, so call 911,' Pikula says. 'Every single minute counts.'
More than three in 10 Canadians cannot name any signs of stroke, according to the latest Heart and Stroke poll results. FAST is a simple way to remember signs of stroke:
Face – is it drooping?
Arms – can you raise both?
Speech – Is it slurred or jumbled?
Time to call 9-1-1 right away.
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"They come with more headaches, with more confusion, with more dizziness, with more chest tightness," she explains. Sometimes, those symptoms can be dismissed if classic stroke symptoms aren't as severe. 'If you're doubting if this is something serious or not, it's better to be checked, so call 911,' Pikula says. 'Every single minute counts.' More than three in 10 Canadians cannot name any signs of stroke, according to the latest Heart and Stroke poll results. FAST is a simple way to remember signs of stroke: Face – is it drooping? Arms – can you raise both? Speech – Is it slurred or jumbled? Time to call 9-1-1 right away.
