BLOOMSBURG, Pa. — Dan Wyman is passionate about training clients at his gym in Bloomsburg. But a little over a month ago, he didn't know when he'd do that again. Dan was training a client at the gym when he kept dropping his water bottle.
"My balance, my coordination, I couldn't control the right side of my body, and it was kind of leaning to the right, and I kind of fell into the bench," he recalled.
Luckily, Vicki Rolinc was training at the gym. She is a registered nurse at Geisinger.
"When I was able to get him to sit down, I noticed the facial droop. He wasn't able to talk, so it was kind of a pretty classic presentation of stroke symptoms," Rolinc said.
Vicki recognized Dan was having a stroke and called 911. She says the most important thing to do in this situation is to get to the hospital. When it comes to stroke symptoms, many health providers use the acronym BE FAST— B for balance or trouble walking and E for eyesight or problems seeing out of one or both eyes.
"F is for the facial droop, so if you see any asymmetry in the face, they can't smile on one side. A is for arms and legs. If they're not able to move or if they have significant weakness on one side," Rolinc explained.
S is for speech that does not make sense, and T is for time to get that person to the hospital.
"You have a very small window. The action that she took, EMS, the people in the hospital, it was excellent," Dan said.
Doctors believe Dan's stroke was caused by a heart condition.
"It was found that he has what's called a PFO, which is a congenital thing. So, he was actually born with this hole in his heart and didn't know it," Laura Wyman said.
Dan is already back to training clients, and he will soon have his heart condition repaired.