Quick action saves teen from stroke

AURORA, Colo. –– Strokes are most often associated with the elderly, but they can happen to children too. In fact, stroke is one of the top 10 causes of death in children. Nearly 800,000 Americans suffer a stroke every year, and about 5 to 10 percent of cases happen in children or young adults.

CBS Denver’s Kathy Walsh met a young stroke survivor who’s amazed her doctors and inspired everyone she meets.

Autumn Voldrich is 15 years old and has spent the last two years working on her motor skills, gaining strength, rehabilitating both her body and her brain. She was just 13 years old when she suffered a stroke.

“I just remember sitting on my bed and complaining of this headache, this massive headache,” Autumn said.

“Within minutes she actually went into a seizure and became completely unresponsive,” Autumn’s mother, Chris Voldrich, said.

Chris called 911 and an astute paramedic had a suspicion: “I think she’s having a stroke, and ‘time is brain,’ so we’ve got to get her out of here,” Chris recalled. Health officials often warn that “time is brain” with a stroke, meaning fast treatment can mean the difference between recovery and serious disability or even death.

Autumn was airlifted to Children’s Hospital in Denver for emergency brain surgery to fix a ruptured aneurysm. When neurologist Dr. Jennifer Armstrong Wells first saw her, Autumn was comatose.

“And when she finally did wake up she wasn’t able to move the right side of her body and she wasn’t able to speak at all,” Armstrong Wells said.

Autumn spent four months in Children’s Hospital relearning how to walk and perform many other tasks she used to take for granted.

Looking at her now, it’s hard to tell there ever was anything wrong. “It turned out so much better than I ever anticipated. I thought she would have come home in a wheelchair,” Chris said.

Walsh reports that while Autumn has come a long way physically, emotionally it’s still a struggle.

“It’s like, why did God put this on me? What did I do wrong?” Autumn said.

She still struggles with fear of what happened in her brain: “I’m scared to go to sleep. Like I know I’m safe, but my body is afraid,” she said.

“She’s a normal kid. She had a brain injury. She worked hard, went through a lot, but she’s a normal kid,” Armstrong Wells said.