How TMH Saved a Young Mom’s Life After a Stroke

by Tallahassee Memorial HealthCare

Talking is something most of us take for granted, but the ability to speak is something Kelly Smith will forever cherish after it was temporarily taken from her by a stroke.

In 2021, Kelly was attending a funeral. Naturally, she was very emotional, but something more was happening.

“I felt like there was hot lava being poured over my head,” Kelly said. “When I went to hug the family, I realized I couldn’t speak.”

She assumed she was just overcome with grief and tried to calm herself, but nothing worked.

It never occurred to the 34-year-old that she was having a stroke.

After the service, Kelly got in the car with her mom to visit the graveside, but they never made it.

On the way, Kelly started to curl up, twist and groan in the passenger seat. Her mom pulled over and dialed 9-1-1.

EMTs arrived and took Kelly to Tallahassee Memorial HealthCare (TMH) — North Florida and South Georgia’s only Comprehensive Stroke Center, the highest designation given to fewer than 1% of hospitals in the country from The Joint Commission to recognize hospitals that can treat the most complex stroke cases.

Once Kelly arrived at TMH, she was quickly taken to get a CT scan. She still couldn’t speak and had lost function in her right arm. Kelly did her best to motion and grunt to try to communicate with her care team.

“It was like a horrible game of charades,” she said.

Kelly was quickly seen by Matthew Lawson, MD, an endovascular neurosurgeon and Stroke Medical Director at TMH, who determined the best care was tissue plasminogen activator, or tPA, a drug used to break up a blood clot and restore blood flow to the brain after a stroke. The treatment worked.

Kelly began to feel better while she recovered in the Vogter Neuro Intensive Care Unit where speech, occupational and physical therapists visited her to help her recover. After five days, Kelly was discharged.

Over two years and many therapy sessions later, Kelly still notices improvement in her speech.

Last year, she went on her honeymoon with her husband, Nathan, in the Caribbean. While there, they went on a difficult 10-mile hike Kelly did not believe she could complete.

Even though Kelly still has some weakness in the right side of her body from her stroke, she hiked through mud, crossed rivers and scaled down canyons – all with her husband encouraging her. After eight hours, the couple finished the hike.

“It brought us to tears because I defeated something I told myself I couldn’t,” she said. “I was just so grateful to be alive.”

Kelly is truly grateful to the TMH team and credits Dr. Lawson with saving her life.

“I never want anyone to have to go through what I went through, but if they had to, I would want them to be at TMH,” Kelly said.

To read Kelly’s full story, visit TMH.ORG/Kelly.

For more information about Tallahassee Memorial’s Comprehensive Stroke Center, visit TMH.ORG/Stroke