Young sportswriter had a stroke while at her parents' house for Thanksgiving
Jul 8, 2022
Calli Varner, 35, was about to return home to Scottsdale, Arizona, when she suddenly couldn't walk or talk.
Stories From the Heart
This series from American Heart Association News chronicles the inspiring journeys of heart disease and stroke survivors, caregivers and advocates.
Family's hereditary heart condition discovered after her father and two sisters died young
Jul 6, 2022
DeAnn Bartram of Ohio got a defibrillator implanted in her chest after doctors discovered she has the same genetic condition that caused the deaths of her father and two sisters.
8 days after giving birth, 29-year-old had a stroke
Jun 30, 2022
Noelia Gutierrez of Miramar, Florida, had a stroke within days of giving birth to her third child. Doctors were able to remove the clot thanks to a new treatment at the time.
38-year-old learns the surprising reason she had a heart attack
Jun 28, 2022
Amy Kren of Girard, Ohio, was mowing her lawn when she thought she was having an asthma attack. It turned out to be blood clots stemming from a genetic disorder.
Kitchen magnet with list of heart attack symptoms convinced him to go to the hospital
Jun 17, 2022
Feeling chest and arm discomfort, Danny Saxon of Wylie, Texas, was undecided whether to go home or head for the emergency room. That is, until his wife texted him a photo of their fridge magnet.
She thought she had bronchitis, but the problem was her heart
Jun 13, 2022
Terita Grier of Atlanta passed her heart stress test. Then a trip to the emergency room for coughing and wheezing led to open-heart surgery.
After stroke at 32, young mom's small town pitched in to help
Jun 9, 2022
Thanks to family, friends and her hometown of Columbia Falls, Montana, Elizabeth Gilberg raised four young children despite many challenges after a stroke.
Grammy winner, chart-topping producer – and kidney transplant recipient
Jun 6, 2022
At 26, composer and producer Brian Kennedy of Los Angeles was finally making it in the music business. Uncontrolled high blood pressure and kidney disease led to a kidney transplant seven years later.
He went from troubleshooting a CPR training app to using CPR to save his 2-year-old son
Jun 2, 2022
When Tyler Morgan saw his son pulled from a pool and not breathing, he put into practice the knowledge he'd absorbed from working on an app powered by his company.
Her 2-year-old niece noticed something wrong during a video chat. It was a mini-stroke.
May 26, 2022
When she was 44, Dawn Turnage of Youngstown, Ohio, had a series of transient ischemic attacks. Since then, she's worked to stay healthy.