Local Stroke Stories

Local Stroke Stories2025-06-19T23:37:13-07:00

Beyond Stillness – Stories After Stroke

Beyond Stillness empowers stroke survivors to articulate and publicly share their stories as gifts of inspiration and hope. Through a reflective story-crafting process, survivors uncover and share the wisdom gained from their recovery. Their gatherings further strengthen bonds and build a compassionate community.

Paramedics reroute ambulance for lifesaving stroke care

When a 911 call is received in Santa Clara County, emergency dispatchers follow medically-approved protocols to help them determine the type of emergency response the patient may require. Based on the caller’s answers to specific questions, dispatchers alert emergency responders, including the fire department and ambulance, of a possible stroke ...

Rita Ecdao-Lubey – Patient Care Liaison/CMA

Rita Ecdao-Lubey exudes confidence. She’s the person who controls her situation, focusing on possibilities rather than limitations. That’s why it comes as such a surprise when Rita explains that her life was once restricted by fear. Stroke changed that. “I didn’t feel afraid anymore,” says Rita, who suffered two strokes ...

Mark Youngblood – Retired Registered Nurse

The signs were there. First, a hand unexpectedly failed to perform a regular function. Facial numbness followed. “I was in total denial,” says Mark Youngblood, a registered nurse of nearly 30 years who suffered an ischemic stroke in 2014. Mark, 55, rose before dawn on March 31. He looked forward ...

Grace Sellers – See’s Candies

Grace Sellers - See's Candies Fall 2013 was a busy season for Grace Sellers. She traveled to Central America with her brother to visit towns and friends they knew from their youth in Honduras as children of missionary parents. She and her husband Richard visited their grandchildren in Oregon, and ...

Pat Dando – SAF, Founding Member

Pat will always be remembered as a "fierce advocate" for whatever cause she believed in. This is one of many things that made Pat Dando such a unique and special person." -Chuck Toeniskoetter, Founding Member of SAF "Some people we encounter in our lives serve to inspire. Truly inspire. ...

Young Survivor Finds Purpose in Stroke

People think that only unhealthy people have strokes. That is so not true,” says stroke advocate and survivor Elizabeth Diaz. A fit runner, clean eater, and mother of two young children, Elizabeth was not a conventional candidate for stroke. She didn’t have high blood pressure or high cholesterol. She didn’t ...

Stroke Survivor Warns of Risks Linked to AFib

It was during breakfast at home when Jeanette Arakawa, 85, started exhibiting signs of stroke. She was trying to ask her husband Kiyo a question, but he heard only gibberish. Kiyo asked Jeanette to repeat herself. The gibberish continued. Her following attempt to write revealed incoherent scrawl. Hearing commotion, ...

Go to Top