WASHINGTON, May 23 (UPI) -- On a January morning in 2001 Amy Agyman, a 43-year-old African-American, was talking to her mother. As the conversation continued, Agyman began slurring her speech and repeating herself.
Her mother recognized her symptoms and immediately called an ambulance. Despite being a health-conscious 5K runner, Agyman was having a stroke.
Agyman is an example of the changing profile of the stroke victim.
"We are drowned by the stereotypes of stroke as a geriatric problem," Agyman said. "People associate stroke survivors as the elderly and those with gray hair."
A younger generation is becoming increasingly at risk for stroke, experts say. Nearly one-quarter of all stroke survivors are under age 65. Physicians and researchers attribute the increase in stroke among younger victims to a corresponding increase in obesity and hypertension.
The ray of good news, said Dr. Mark Alberts, director of the stroke program at Northwestern University Medical School, is that the younger the patient, the greater the possibility of recovery, even after a massive stroke.
"There is a lot of variability in giving the accurate prognosis," Alberts said.
Stroke is the third-leading cause of death in the United States and causes more long-term disabilities than any other disease. Risk factors include age, family history, race -- blacks are twice as likely as whites to die from stroke -- smoking, diabetes and obesity.
After a stroke, 40 percent of the victims die or are significantly disabled, 30 percent experience a moderate disability, and 30 percent experience slight impairments.
Though it is one of the leading causes of death, many survivors and stroke organizations say the public and healthcare personnel don't recognize the severity of the disease.
Agyman waited for hours before having a CT scan. "The doctors were shocked because I was acting so routinely when they saw I had suffered from a stroke. I wasn't bleeding," Agyman said. "I completed my paperwork. I didn't appear to have any abnormalities."
Alberts said a Food and Drug Administration-approved blood-clot-dissolving treatment called thrombolytic therapy could prevent nearly 50 percent of strokes, but it is vastly underused.
"This is a national embarrassment," Alberts said. He added that awareness of stroke has not gotten the sustained attention of other ailments like AIDS and breast cancer.
"All diseases are bad, and I'm not trying to prove that this disease is worse than other diseases," he said. "We need to do a better job in marketing and publicity."
Not only does the disease affect victims physically, it also can debilitate them emotionally.
Karl Guerra is a former corporate executive who had a massive stroke six years ago. After three years of treatment for 10 hours a day he has regained his ability to speak, read, write and understand language.
"I watched every dollar I had ever owned go away from me," he said. "I had to start from ground zero at the age of 56."
Agyman said she is always aware of the possibility of another stroke.
"Whenever I get a headache or something within my body pops, my first thought is that I am having another stroke," she said. "There is no way to explain how that weighs on your psyche."
Stroke survivors and advocacy organizations are trying to pass a STOP Stroke Act before Congress adjourns. In earlier sessions it has passed the House of Representatives or the Senate, but never both.
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