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TEEN RECOVERS AFTER STROKE
Reegan Lueken is back to riding her bike after recovering from a stroke last spring.
To say Reegan Lueken’s first track practice did not go as planned is an understatement. The now 13-year-old Prairie Middle School student collapsed about 20 minutes into practice. “I felt light-headed,” recalled Reegan. “I just laid down on the ground and couldn’t get back up. I thought I was going to pass out. I didn’t really notice I couldn’t move the left side of my body. My dad, came and picked me up and we went to the hospital.” “I initially thought she might be dehydrated,” Ben Lueken, Reegan’s dad explained. “But when I arrived at the school, Reegan couldn’t sit up. Right away, I knew it wasn’t dehydration. I immediately picked her up, put her in the car and drove to St. Luke’s ER. Everyone at the hospital said it looks like she is having a stroke, which is nuts, which is crazy. Kids don’t have strokes, but she had all the
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classic symptoms of a stroke. The doctors told me, ‘we are going to do a scan and see.’ And I was just shocked. Strokes are for old people, not a 12-year-old.” “Strokes don’t discriminate,” said Brian Shedek, DO, St. Luke’s Emergency Room physician. “Anyone of any age, race, ethnicity and gender can be at risk. Reegan was so brave and positive, and her father remained so calm, which made it easy to explain what was going on and receive consent for treatment.”
‘Time is Brain’ At St. Luke’s, Reegan received a medicine called tPA (tissue plasminogen activator) to break up the blood clot, which was causing the stroke and reducing blood flow to the brain. “In the ER we say, ‘time is brain,’” shared Dr. Shedek. “This means when dealing with critical stroke patients the success of
their outcome is often how quickly they are treated with tPA and other procedures, which are time-dependent. With each passing minute, a stroke progresses, and functional outcomes worsen. Teamwork was key in a successful outcome for Reegan. Our pharmacists, neurologists, radiologists, nurses, radiology technicians and ER providers all did an amazing job of working together to diagnose Reegan’s problem quickly, determine tPA dosing and arrange rapid transport via LifeGuard Air Ambulance to a higher level of care to remove Reegan’s blood clot.” “I appreciated the doctors,” Maria Lueken, Reegan’s mom shared. “They talked to us about tPA and did a good job of explaining what it is and how it’s not commonly used in children but told us they thought it was her best chance. They did a nice job of staying calm and explaining things along the way.”
