Being a parent comes with a lot of stress, and that stress doesn’t end when your children are school-age–it only becomes worse. Instead of being able to watch your child all day and make sure that he or she is fine, you now have to entrust their care and well-being to strangers, and that is terrifying. You have to trust that other children won’t bring peanut butter to school so as not to trigger your child’s allergies. You have to trust that the other little kids won’t pick on yours, or that if they do, a teacher will step in to stop it. You have to trust that the teachers, principal, nurse and all other staff will put your child’s well-being first if something should happen. All that trust can wear a person out!
One mom was right to trust her son’s school, and she will be forever grateful for the school nurse in particular.
For Isaiah Griffin, a 13-year-old boy, it was just another school day. He went to school like normal and feeling perfectly fine. But then, shortly after arriving on campus, he began to feel ill. He left class and went to see the school nurse, Carrie Stephenson. Stephenson knew immediately that what Isaiah was suffering from wasn’t the typical flu or the common cold. She knew that he was in trouble. Her suspicions were confirmed by what happened next.
Isaiah started to sway back and forth and then his eyes rolled back in his head–all signs of a stroke! That’s right–a 7th-grader was having a stroke. Fortunately, Stephenson acted fast, and within minutes, EMT was there to take him to Le Bonheur Children’s Hospital in Memphis. The doctors found a blood clot that was just inches away from his brain. If Stephenson hadn’t recognized the signs of a stroke, Isaiah wouldn’t be here today.
This all happened just a week before Christmas and right before the teenager’s 14th birthday.
Nurse Stephenson is being called a hero, but she doesn’t think of herself that way. When asked about her actions, she just said that she did what she hopes any other nurse would do.
Isaiah is extremely grateful for a second chance at life, and tells others, “Never give up. Always believe.”
His mother is beyond grateful and is now advocating for more nurses in schools.
For those of you who don’t know what the signs of a stroke are, we’ve pulled these signs and symptoms from WebMD for your convenience:
- Weakness or paralysis of any part of the body
- Numbness or a “pins and needles” sensation anywhere in the body
- Gait disturbances (trouble walking) or loss of balance and coordination
- Vision changes, blurred vision, or trouble with eyesight in one or both eyes
- Dizziness
- Severe headache that usually is unlike headaches in the past
- Confusion
- Inability to speak, slurred speech, or inability to understand speech
- Loss of sensation in any part of the body
- Memory loss
- Behavioral changes
- Muscle stiffness
- Difficulty swallowing
- Involuntary eye movements
- Face drooping
- Arm weakness
- Speech difficulty
- Time to call 9-1-1
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