The “Luckiest Unlucky" Person: How Jeff Survived Back-to-Back Strokes

After two life-changing experiences, Jeff and his wife Kristin of Alpharetta, Georgia call themselves “the luckiest unluckiest people alive.”

Jeff, 54, has always been active. However, while playing soccer in September 2023, he shattered his collarbone. That injury led to a series of setbacks, including infections, five surgical revisions and months of antibiotics.

Nearly a year later, he was well enough to be active again and joined his friends for a long-overdue Saturday morning pick-up soccer game. However, it wasn’t the celebratory experience he expected.

“While playing, I noticed a change in my vision. I thought my contact lens had fallen out, but my friends said it looked like it still was in my eye,” Jeff says. He sat down for a moment to let his vision settle. Then he started seeing a bright orange light.

Worried he might be experiencing a retinal detachment, Jeff decided to head home. “About five minutes into my drive, the left side of my body became numb and shaky. I pulled over, called 911 and gave the operator Kristin’s number so she could be looped into the call,” Jeff explained.

“I wasn’t sure where I was, so my wife tracked me on her phone and directed the EMTs to my location.”

The EMTs initially thought Jeff was having a panic attack because all his vital signs were normal. To be certain, Kristin decided to drive him to the emergency department at Emory Johns Creek Hospital.

The Emory Healthcare emergency department team immediately used a CT scan to look at the blood vessels in Jeff’s brain. They saw Jeff had experienced a stroke. The scan showed a dissection in his carotid artery, the main artery in the neck that supplies blood to the brain.

A layer of tissue had torn off and formed a blood clot in the artery. Jeff needed treatment urgently. The stroke had already caused hemianopsia or “half-blindness.” Vision changes like this are one of the signs of stroke.

The Emory Johns Creek team gave Jeff a clot-busting medicine and then airlifted him to Emory University Hospital’s Neurology Intensive Care Unit (ICU) for monitoring.

Jeff met Feras Akbik, MD, PhD, a Emory Healthcare neurologist who specializes in neurocritical care and neurological interventional radiology. “Considering how bad his artery looked, Jeff was stable and doing pretty well,” Dr. Akbik said.

But everything changed later that evening.

“Suddenly, I got a terrible headache and started to feel like my leg muscles were cramping,” Jeff remembers. At his bedside, Kristin saw that something was wrong and alerted the staff.

“We have a CT scanner in the ICU, so we quickly got him in there,” Dr. Akbik says. “The clot had gotten worse. It was now obstructing blood flow in the main artery feeding the right side of his brain. He was having a massive stroke.”

Time is of the essence when someone is experiencing a stroke. The in-house neurology team flew into action to get Jeff into surgery. “We had a five-alarm emergency and a short window of time to work against, so we had to be blazing fast,” Dr. Akbik says. “This was an extremely challenging case with a complicated tear in the artery.”

Dr. Akbik and team wove a microcatheter, or flexible tube, through the femoral artery in Jeff’s groin to the carotid artery in his neck to remove the clot. Then, they reconstructed the torn artery with a stent, a small mesh tube that helps to hold open passageways in the body.

The care team’s fast action meant Jeff had an excellent chance of a positive outcome with few ill effects from what could have been a life-ending stroke. 

Jeff spent three days in the ICU and three days in the stroke ward, with Kristin and their daughter often at his bedside. He and Kristin praise the Emory team for their care, warmth and humanity. “The kindness, patience and bedside manner of so many people made my treatments healing rather than simply curative,” Jeff says.

Kristin adds, “Everyone participated in saving Jeff’s life—from the man singing while he sweeps the floors to nurse Wilnely, who made the hospital feel less scary to our daughter, to Dr. Akbik, who performed nothing less than a miracle.”

Once released from the hospital, Jeff quickly regained his strength and completed physical therapy. Occupational therapy is helping to improve his dexterity and fine motor skills. He’s also undergoing Reiki, a Japanese healing practice, and acupuncture for stress reduction and relaxation.

Jeff has resumed work in a limited capacity and still travels to visit with family and friends. “Considering the severity of my stroke, I’m thrilled to be able to walk, talk and perform all my activities of daily living. But recovery will take many months—perhaps years—to fully achieve.”

He continues follow-up appointments with Dr. Akbik. “Self-care and therapy fill my days, as I tire more easily now. But I recover more of my prior abilities daily, so I feel hopeful for the future,” Jeff says.

“Dr. Akbik holds a special place in our hearts as a man of deep knowledge and profound depth,” Kristin says. “I was delighted to learn that he also holds a doctorate in philosophy. He exemplifies the nuance of medicine as both science and art by perfectly balancing cold, hard science with the warmth of humanity.”

Dr. Akbik credits this promising recovery to Jeff’s resilience, as well as the vigilant neuro ICU nurses and around-the-clock availability of experienced neurocritical care and neurointervention teams at Emory.

Neurocritical care teams focus on intensive treatment of critically ill patients, including those with stroke, traumatic brain injury, spinal cord injury and more. They collaborate with neurointerventional specialists, who use image-guided, minimally-invasive techniques to treat vascular disorders in the brain, neck and spine. Stroke care at Emory Healthcare also includes dedicated spaces and services to provide advanced care for neurological patients.

“Emory Healthcare has 54 dedicated neuro ICU beds and teleneuro ICU services that extend our capacity to over 100 beds across the Atlanta metro area,” says Dr. Akbik. Through teleneurology services, the neurology care team is able to support patients across the Emory network through remote neurological assessment, diagnosis and treatment. “Leveraging our subspecialty expertise and massive capacity, patients can receive cutting-edge care at an Emory hospital close to home. We’re all part of the same team.”

Emory Healthcare delivers advanced stroke intervention at Emory University Hospital and Emory St. Joseph’s Hospital, complemented by primary stroke center services at four other Emory hospitals.

“It’s a great privilege to do this at Emory,” Dr. Akbik adds. “I manage my patients’ care experience from beginning to end. From acute care in the emergency department, interventional procedures, critical care and outpatient follow-up, I can provide a continuity of care and ownership of my patients’ welfare.”

Together for nearly 30 years, Jeff and Kristin are grateful to Emory for helping them navigate “the most intense, overwhelming and life-altering thing” that’s happened in their family since they adopted their two daughters.

“Everyone did their job, and because of that, Jeff is doing well,” Kristin points out. “Every minute mattered, and so many things lined up exactly right.”