he is young, but a stroke is no longer just an old persons condition. You’d be surprised at the damning statistics of “younger” people having strokes for various reasons. Whatever the cause, I hope they find it and fix it!
Ian Callinan
- Thread starter Danger in Texas
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he is young, but a stroke is no longer just an old persons condition. You’d be surprised at the damning statistics of “younger” people having strokes for various reasons. Whatever the cause, I hope they find it and fix it!
Was just reading about that. Apparently has been playing on Hobart's Eastern Shore and is one of the fittest guys going around!
Jars said today he had spoken to one of the Gowan brothers and sounds like Callinan is walking and responsive again, but obviously has a long way to go still.
Gak Attack
Brownlow Medallist
Horrible to hear and glad it sounds like he is improving. He was a great player who should have played in the AFL a lot earlier than he did and was glad you guys finally gave him the chance. It was clear even as a youngster playing for Tassie in the VFL he was next level and despite being constantly the best player in comps with AFL listed players somehow kept being overlooked because of his height.
Yep. My wife had a stroke 2 years ago at age 43. This came completely out of the blue - fit, healthy, active person, never smoked, only a light drinker, not overweight, etc - basically none of the risk factors you'd expect.
The doctors were mystified as to what caused it, it was only a week or two later when they reviewed all her scans etc again that they figured out that she'd suffered a dissection of the carotid artery. Basically your blood vessels have 2 layers - the inner layer is made up of some substance that your blood will not clot against (obviously, otherwise we'd all be dead with our blood clotted in our veins and arteries). A dissection of the carotid artery is when you get a small tear in that inner lining in the carotid artery - often caused by whiplash type injuries, but it can happen spontaneously in something like 1 in 100,000 people, which is what happened to her. So small tear in the inner lining of the artery leads to the blood clotting against the outer wall, then the blood clot broke free and went straight up into her brain and voila, there's your stroke. And there's not a damn thing you could have done to prevent it, no matter how healthy your lifestyle.
We are very lucky we live in a time and place where there are medical options. Took her to the RAH, they performed a clot retrieval - basically stick a thing into the artery in her leg, goes all the way up to her brain and pulls out the blood clot. They told me later that they'd only been doing that procedure for a few years - if she'd had it 5 years earlier they wouldn't have been able to do much except give her some anti-clotting drugs and hope for the best. Most likely outcome then would have been she'd spend the rest of her life in a nursing home. Instead she's pretty much back to normal and able to do all the stuff she used to do before - occasionally struggles with words and language, and doesn't multi-task as well as she used to. But if you'd offered me this outcome at the time, I'd have jumped at it given the state she was in (couldn't walk or even stand up, no sensation in the left side of her body, badly slurred speech, left side of her vision gone).
One thing she and Ian Callinan have going for them is that your brain has more elasticity in it when you're younger, so it's better able to bounce back from this kind of injury. So hopefully he gets as fortunate an outcome from this as we did - strokes in older people tend to have much worse outcomes. Strokes in younger people are much more common than you'd think, though. I asked one of the nurses at the hospital about it, and she reckoned something like 1 in 5 people they get there would be my wife's age or younger.
Mileratkinsshow
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Wonders of modern science. All the best to you and your wife, and hope wingnut has a similarly good news story to tell.
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yeah I also had a stroke two years ago at 42. I was very fit and was competing in my weekly community run. The doctors were hoping it was a clot, but I had a haemorrhage instead.
Being “youngish” is definitely an advantage, but it’s still a tough gig. How is your wife now?
Yeah, she's mostly fine, thanks. Like I mentioned, she occasionally has issues with being unable to find a word and can get a bit overwhelmed when trying to do too many things at once, but that's not really a big deal compared to how it could have turned out.
We were also maybe lucky that they were running a drug trial at the RAH at the time on some drug that was supposed to improve the outcome in stroke patients. They asked me if I wanted to sign her up, and I said yes - although it has to be said that they have you at a bit of a disadvantage in that situation, since at that point in time and in that situation you would happily agree to let them do anything or everything they can think of that might help
We don't know if she actually got the drug or the placebo, but the fact she's pulled up pretty well makes me think she probably got the real deal.Also lucky that they did the clot retrieval procedure despite being well past the time limit that they would usually do it. I think they normally do it if it is within 6 hours of the onset of the stroke. In her case we estimated it was probably 10 hours minimum. In her case they did a scan which showed an area of tissue in her brain around the clot which was basically dead / damaged beyond repair, but there was a larger area surrounding that which was considered at risk. So they did the clot retrieval in order to try and save as much of that as possible, and luckily for us pretty much all of that "at risk" area recovered.
The haemorrhage kind is much worse than the clot - how did you pull up from it?
I was in a wheelchair for most of 2019, but I am back out there running again. My haemorrhage was from an avm, Something I was born with. I’ve since had full blown brain surgery and problem Now removed.Yeah, she's mostly fine, thanks. Like I mentioned, she occasionally has issues with being unable to find a word and can get a bit overwhelmed when trying to do too many things at once, but that's not really a big deal compared to how it could have turned out.
We were also maybe lucky that they were running a drug trial at the RAH at the time on some drug that was supposed to improve the outcome in stroke patients. They asked me if I wanted to sign her up, and I said yes - although it has to be said that they have you at a bit of a disadvantage in that situation, since at that point in time and in that situation you would happily agree to let them do anything or everything they can think of that might help
Also lucky that they did the clot retrieval procedure despite being well past the time limit that they would usually do it. I think they normally do it if it is within 6 hours of the onset of the stroke. In her case we estimated it was probably 10 hours minimum. In her case they did a scan which showed an area of tissue in her brain around the clot which was basically dead / damaged beyond repair, but there was a larger area surrounding that which was considered at risk. So they did the clot retrieval in order to try and save as much of that as possible, and luckily for us pretty much all of that "at risk" area recovered.
The haemorrhage kind is much worse than the clot - how did you pull up from it?
From Hobart's Mercury newspaper...
"A HOLE in the heart may have been the cause behind the stroke for former star footballer Ian Callinan that has rocked the Tasmanian sporting community.
Callinan, 37, is recovering at home with his family, wife Lauren, and children, but faces rehabilitation and possibly surgery after suffering the stroke last Thursday.
He had been having blackouts six weeks prior to his stroke, but was checked and cleared of any cardio or neurological issues before this episode.
In a statement to the Mercury from the family, they said were shocked when Callinan – who played for OHA in the Old Scholars the previous Saturday kicking four goals – fell ill rushing the former Adelaide Crow to Calvary Hospital before he was transferred to the Royal Hobart Hospital.
“Ian is a very fit, healthy young man with none of the normal risk factors (diabetes, high blood pressure, high cholesterol etc.) so the hospital staff performed many additional tests to find the cause,” the statement said.
“The allied health team from the hospital started working with him straight away with physio, speech therapy, fine motor skills and getting him moving.
“He is taking things slowly, one day at a time and giving this 100 per cent.
“A scan yesterday indicated that a hole in the heart is the likely cause of the stroke, which will require some further treatment soon.
“He is home now, still very tired and resting and that’ll continue for a while...." "
"A HOLE in the heart may have been the cause behind the stroke for former star footballer Ian Callinan that has rocked the Tasmanian sporting community.
Callinan, 37, is recovering at home with his family, wife Lauren, and children, but faces rehabilitation and possibly surgery after suffering the stroke last Thursday.
He had been having blackouts six weeks prior to his stroke, but was checked and cleared of any cardio or neurological issues before this episode.
In a statement to the Mercury from the family, they said were shocked when Callinan – who played for OHA in the Old Scholars the previous Saturday kicking four goals – fell ill rushing the former Adelaide Crow to Calvary Hospital before he was transferred to the Royal Hobart Hospital.
“Ian is a very fit, healthy young man with none of the normal risk factors (diabetes, high blood pressure, high cholesterol etc.) so the hospital staff performed many additional tests to find the cause,” the statement said.
“The allied health team from the hospital started working with him straight away with physio, speech therapy, fine motor skills and getting him moving.
“He is taking things slowly, one day at a time and giving this 100 per cent.
“A scan yesterday indicated that a hole in the heart is the likely cause of the stroke, which will require some further treatment soon.
“He is home now, still very tired and resting and that’ll continue for a while...." "
