In 1921, the first radio baseball game was broadcast, Warren Harding was President, Albert Einstein won the Nobel Prize for physics and an Akron woman named Helen Brown was born.
Brown, who turned 102 last month, made her own history at Cleveland Clinic Akron General earlier this year. Hospital officials believe she is the oldest Cleveland Clinic patient to ever have a thrombectomy performed following a stroke.
"Oh, I've been blessed, health-wise, family-wise," she said.Brown was in her upstairs bed when she suddenly realized she couldn't raise her arms. Her mouth started to twist and her words were slurred. She knew what was happening.Brown's daughter, Deidre Foreman, had just walked down the stairs and heard her mom calling out, but couldn't understand what she was saying. She hurried back up the steps. "I flipped on the light and said, 'Mom, what's wrong?' And she said, to the best of her ability, 'I had a stroke,'" Foreman said. Family members called for help, and she was transported to Akron General, where doctors performed a thrombectomy, which removed a clot from Helen's brain. Foreman said as the family was praying in a waiting room, Dr. Firas Al-Ali appeared and announced the surgery was a success.Dr. Dhimant Dani, director of the neuroscience critical care unit at Akron General, said Brown's age was not a limiting factor because she was otherwise healthy and has a good family support system. "Age is just a number. I think what is the more important thing: is there any way we can give patients a life with lesser or no disability?" Dani said."Every patient deserves to live, and every patient deserves the best care." There was concern that Brown may not be able to walk again, but her family said she continues to defy the odds as she continues her recovery and walks around the house with assistance from a walker.Brown was born in Alabama but moved to Akron near the end of World War II. She worked on assembly lines at Goodyear Aircraft ad Goodrich Rubber before taking a teaching job at Smith Elementary. She lost a six-month-old child to spina bifida and went on to have four other children with her husband Earlie. When asked what her secret is to living to 102, Brown replied,"I tried to eat the right foods. I didn't drink. I didn't smoke." May is Stroke Awareness Month, and the family is urging people to remember the acronym FAST to recognize stroke symptoms and the importance of getting help quickly.Brown also continues to count her blessings, realizing her stroke survival could help others reach 100 and beyond. "That's history for someone else, and perhaps they learned something through my surgery that could help someone else."Replay: News 5 at 11 Download the News 5 Cleveland app now for more stories from us, plus alerts on major news, the latest weather forecast, traffic information and much more. Download now on your Apple device here, and your Android device here. You can also catch News 5 Cleveland on Roku, Apple TV, Amazon Fire TV, YouTube TV, DIRECTV NOW, Hulu Live and more. We're also on Amazon Alexa devices. Learn more about our streaming options here.
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