♪ Always be strong and never give up ♪ - She was determined.

Determined to live.

- She was cancer free.

- I feel like I was in really good hands and I can't say enough about the treatment that I got.

- Things do change nothing stays static.

A new day will come.

(uplifting music) - Welcome to "Hope is Here."

I'm Carla Hill.

Five decades ago, Lawrence Monk Terry was at the top of his game.

In 1972 he had won a silver medal with the U.S. rowing team at the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich, Germany.

His position on the team was an important one.

He served as the stroke.

That's the term for the one who sets the pace for the rest of the rowers.

Since then his life has been rowing along merrily, but just recently he was a fit and active retiree who was enjoying his golden years.

Yet it was on an April day after Monk was doing housework and decided it was time to come inside that his life would take a pause.

What happened next would give a whole new meaning to his revered rowing position, the stroke.

- My name is Monk Terry.

Well, Lawrence is my real name, but Monk is what I've been called for a long, long time.

I grew up in Concord, Massachusetts and I grew up at a school, a boarding school since my father was the headmaster there.

So, of course, that's where I went.

That's where I really started rowing, although my father had taught me to row when I was younger than that.

So in 1972 I was fortunate enough to make the Olympic eight and I was the stroke of that eight, which is the guy in the stern that sets the pace.

- [Announcer] New Zealand coming up, and New Zealand have won the gold medal in the eights.

On the far side United States is second, and East Germany is third.

- I've been healthy, so yeah, not expecting that at all.

Well, it was a normal morning, you know, making coffee for Kitty and lining up to-dos.

So on that day I decided to take some mold off a wall out front here.

That day was, like, a hundred degrees.

It was really hot.

I don't know why, but I mean, I guess it's 'cause we're in Miami, right?

Anyway, so I did that.

I think I had a little lunch and went into my study to do paperwork or whatever, and I don't remember exactly what I was doing.

I think I leaned down to get a pencil, or something that I had dropped.

So I remember being on the floor stretching my back, but also thinking this isn't quite feeling right.

- I came in and he was sitting on the floor of his study and I said, "What are you doing?"

- I said, "Oh, I'm just stretching my back is hurting me."

She said, "I don't think you're right."

And I said, "No, I'm fine."

And by this time I could feel my left side.

I was not speaking correctly.

- And then I realized that he couldn't move his left arm.

He was trying to move it.

And so then I said, "I think you've had a stroke.

I'm gonna call 911."

- And I said, "No, no, no, not yet, I'm fine, I'll be fine," which typical male response, of course.

And so then, of course, later I found out that she had already called them.

- And by that time I could already hear the sirens.

- They were here in, like, two minutes - And I went out and met the guys, and they figured out how to get him out very, very fast.

(sirens wailing) - So whenever you have stroke-like symptoms it's critical to come to the hospital as soon as possible.

And one of the things that has really made that possible with the Baptist system is our telemedicine network.

We have worked with emergency medical technologists that pick up the patient at the scene, and they're able to communicate with the physician directly so that they can assess how the patient is doing and determine exactly what treatments they'll need.

- Well, it's awesome.

I mean, to be engaged at that point was impressive, and made me feel wherever my brain was, whatever it was doing, feel very assured that I was in good hands.

- So, luckily, Mr. Terry was able to make it to the hospital relatively rapidly after the onset of symptoms, and he was able to arrive within four hours.

The next step in his evaluation was to perform a CT angiogram, and that showed that he had a complete blockage of the right middle cerebral artery.

- When Dr. Wicks came out he was terrific, and he explained to me exactly what had happened, and that it was a good sign that we had found out what caused the stroke 'cause sometimes we don't know.

- Then after that, which is sort of a setup for the procedure to remove the actual clot, which I could see on the image.

Sounds simple, I don't think it's simple, but they are very good at it, so happy about that, of course.

(gentle music) - He has made an outstanding recovery.

He has now returned to near full-strength.

- I feel like I was in really good hands, and I can't say enough about the treatment that I got, but I think the main message is pay attention to what's going on in your body.

I would say you are the best, and I love you.

- Monk Terry and his wife Kitty join us now.

How are you?

- We're well, we're happy to be here.

- We're great.

- Thank you so much.

I just wanna say that we are glad to have you here on "Hope is Here."

And we've heard stories of what a heart attack feels like, and a host of other conditions and illnesses, but, Monk, what does a stroke feel like?

- It was like a fog coming over me, and I thought I was in control of myself, but I was not.

Kitty was the one who told me that I was not.

- Thank goodness for that.

- Yes.

- Thank goodness for that.

Kitty, your husband he said, "I'll be fine, I'll be fine," but you made a phone call that saved his life.

How did you know to make that call?

- I think it was instinct for me.

I'd always heard about 911.

I'd always known that this was something that you should quickly think about.

Is this a time to call or not to call?

And I'm used to him saying I'm perfectly fine 'cause he's used to pain, he's used to all that competition.

And so I just figured I'm kind of a crisis-oriented person anyway in my career, not in medicine, but I just thought I'm gonna go make the call, and I actually left the room and went and made the call.

- [Carla] Oh my goodness.

- Yeah.

- Wow, wow, I'm sure it took a lot because as spouses as partners, we have this gut instinct when we know it's not really, oh, I'm fine, right?

- Right.

- What were those symptoms that you found out after all that it turned out that it was a good thing that Kitty made that call?

- I remember feeling, like, neck, back pain, but I was on the floor and I could not get up, and I thought, oh, I just have a weak left arm or something, but it didn't occur to me what was really happening.

- Yeah, I imagine you've always been in good health.

Talk about your health before this day.

How were you feeling before the day?

- Feeling great.

- What was your usual routine?

Had you always stayed active even after your magnificent, you know, athletic career?

- I had been active rowing for probably 10, 15 years after 1972.

And then later got into outrigger canoe paddling.

So I was always doing something, especially if it had something to do with a boat, and doing chores around the house always fixing things, and doing Pilates.

I also did Pilates three times a week.

- Oh, my goodness.

You are my hero, Monk, my goodness.

I need to, like, catch up with you.

I want to introduce Dr. Robert Wicks, a neurosurgeon at Baptist Health South Florida.

Dr. Wicks, thanks for joining us here at "Hope is Here."

- Thank you for inviting me.

- Absolutely.

So, Dr. Wicks, I have always heard that timing is everything when it comes to a stroke.

That survival or success for a full recovery is based on how fast you get the stroke victim help.

Tell us about that for us.

- Yes, so the issue with a stroke is that in many cases you have a blood clot that's blocking one of the major arteries within the brain.

So what happens is that part of the brain is not receiving good blood flow, and then you can start to have some of the neurons in the brain, the small cells start to die.

And there was actually a study done around 15 years ago that tried to quantify how quickly that happens.

And they found that when there was poor blood flow to an area of the brain that neurons die at about two million neurons per minute.

So that's why it's very critical to seek help as soon as possible in order for us to have the best chance of reopening the blood vessel and restoring blood flow to the brain.

- And in order to do that, Dr. Wicks, I'm wondering in real time how fast does a patient need to see you, or someone in a hospital when this is happening?

- Right.

So a patient needs to seek help as soon as possible and we try to intervene as soon as possible as well.

There are some time limits for some specific points.

One of those is that there is a medication that can be given that can open the blood vessels and break up blood clots, and that medication needs to be given within 4-1/2 hours of the stroke onset.

So while you want to seek care as soon as possible there's also a limit to when you can give that medication.

Alternatively, as far as opening the blood vessels we also have some specific time limits that we really need to do that as soon as possible as well.

- Thank you Dr. Wicks.

You know, this may be the most important part of the show, but please educate us.

How do we know when someone is having a stroke?

What are the telltale signs that our audience should know about?

- Yes, so there's an acronym that you can try to remember called BE FAST.

So that's B is for balance.

So if your friend or family member is having sudden onset imbalance and unable to walk.

E is for eye movement, so if they start to complain of double vision, or they are having some loss of vision in their eyes.

F is for face.

If you notice that they are having facial weakness, or they are having any drooling.

A is for arms if they're having any arm weakness.

S is for speech if they're slurring their speech, or they are not able to express themselves or state words.

And then the T stands for time, meaning at that point it is time to seek medical care as soon as possible.

- That's a great acronym to remember.

Monk, I wonder how were you, do you remember anything when you were in that ambulance?

- I remember the camera at the back of the truck.

I don't remember if it was Dr. Wicks I was talking to or not, but I remember having a conversation, which presumably gave them some information about my condition.

That was pretty interesting.

- I bet, you know, I didn't know that the technology was so much that you could be in the ambulance, and if the doctors, if the paramedics are afraid that you're having a stroke they can keep challenging you and talking to you, and watching those symptoms that's amazing.

Dr. Wicks, we were just talking about the timing and the importance to treat the patient immediately after the stroke.

Baptist has a state of the art telestroke service inside the Coral Gables fire rescue vehicle that I just learned about.

Why is that life saving?

I mean, wouldn't the paramedics be able to identify a stroke and start administering the proper treatment immediately?

- Right, what's important is for the patient to have an initial evaluation as well by a neurologist.

And I believe that's who was evaluating Mr. Monk at the time.

And one of the decisions is, is this a stroke that would benefit from delivery of one of those clot busting medications that would open the arteries, or is this a different form of stroke?

So there's really two different types of strokes.

One where you have bleeding in the brain, and then another where you can have blockage of blood flow to the brain.

And so it's important to try to differentiate that.

So the EMS are able to do a lot of the initial assessments, but it's also important to start the process early of getting a more in-depth neurologic exam, and then also determining what the best course of action is.

- Thank you for that.

I wanna go back to Kitty.

You and your husband have been married we were talking what, 50 years, 50 plus?

- [Kitty] 53.

- [Carla] 53.

- So far.

- 53 so far, don't get into any trouble.

- 53 so far, but in all seriousness, you married this very athletic gentleman, you're seeing him in agony on the floor.

Did you even suspect a stroke?

- You know, every time someone asks me that, yes, I think that I did intuitively.

I just knew the most important thing was he was not okay.

And to me it, it's so different.

He was so different.

Why not call 911?

I don't know for sure if it's a stroke, but I think that's really important and that's what I've been telling people.

I said, just call.

There's no problem if he's not having a stroke.

And I think it was intuitive to call because I knew that I didn't know what was going on, but I think I did say to you, babe, I think you're having a stroke.

"No, no," he said, so I'm gonna call 911 anyway.

- I'm fine.

- I'm fine, I'm okay.

- Yes, yes, as someone who's married, yes, we say that to each other.

- All the time.

- Oh, yeah, I'm fine.

- Constantly.

- But something in your gut really helped you to save your husband's life that day.

Dr. Wicks, how can people safeguard against stroke?

Is there a way to do that?

- The best way to safeguard against stroke is to make sure that you are treating any risk factors, or medical problems that you may have fully.

So in some cases, patients may have high blood pressure, or they have diabetes, and it's very important to make sure that your blood pressure is well-controlled.

If you have diabetes, making sure that your blood glucose levels are treated well because all of that plays into having good cardiovascular health.

And that's both keeping the blood vessels healthy within the heart as well as within the brain.

Other things would be if you have any heart rhythm abnormalities, and need to be on any blood thinning medications that might be important in order to limit the likelihood of developing any blood clots that may travel to the brain and cause a stroke.

- Monk, you went through something called a thrombectomy.

What was that experience like for you?

- I don't remember.

I remember going into the CAT scan machine, but that's about it.

And I remember the anesthesiologist putting the mask over my face, but I was fine.

- You were fine, but Dr. Wicks he felt fine.

That means he was in great hands, but if you can explain to our audience the process of the thrombectomy that helped to save Monk that would be great.

- Right, so what it was he was asleep during the procedure so that affects your memory of it, I'm sure, so we placed a catheter within the femoral artery and the leg, so just kind of in the leg one of the main arteries there, and we're actually able to travel through the arteries from the leg all the way up to the neck and then up to the brain, and we're able to bring a smaller catheter up to the brain to where the blockage is, and then we're able to actually suction and remove that blockage.

It was able to be successful in his case and it worked very well.

In some cases we also have to open up specialized types of stints, these little things that kind of grasp the clot and can pull it out, but in recent years we've seen really the benefit of these interventions in being able to remove large blood clots from the brain.

- Thank you so much for sharing that.

Monk and Kitty, sometimes through situations like this a condition is uncovered that you had no idea that you had.

Tell us, Monk, how you discovered you had AFib, and what have you done so far to control this irregular heartbeat?

- I really only found out then that I had it, and I had not felt anything abnormal.

I mean, I was still doing all my exercising and so forth, and felt no different.

So now I'm on a blood thinner.

I was actually with my cardiologist yesterday and he said, "Keep doing whatever you wanna do, just don't hit your head."

- Oh my goodness, good advice, good advice, but that's great that you're being encouraged to get out there and live life.

I think that's some of the best advice that doctors give us.

Dr. Wicks, when a person has AFib and that sends up a red flag for a risk of a stroke, what are the preventative steps that one should take?

- Right, so AFib or atrial fibrillation is where you have a heart rhythm abnormality.

And what can happen is that you can develop blood clots in the heart because it's not beating as it normally would.

And then those blood clots can then travel through the arteries up to the brain causing the stroke.

So it is important that if you have been diagnosed with atrial fibrillation to be evaluated by your cardiologist and determine what is the best medical management whether that is to be on a blood thinning medication, or to be on an aspirin, but I think that's very important.

And then if you are having symptoms of dizziness, or you're having episodes where you pass out then it may be important to see a cardiologist as well to be evaluated for any heart rhythm abnormalities that you may not be aware of.

- That's excellent advice.

I want to remind our audience I'm sitting here with a two-time Olympiad for the United States of America, and all of your fans out there wanna know are you back in the boat?

- I was back in the boat a couple weeks ago, actually, in Boston and managed to row three miles with some of my buddies so that was a good moment.

- [Carla] Wow.

- It was a beautiful day and happy to get to the other end.

- [Carla] I love that you call it a good moment.

And three miles sounds like a million to me, but I bet that's nothing for you, but doing it now probably feels so good.

- [Monk] It does, it did.

- [Carla] Like a second chance.

- Yes, yeah, absolutely.

- What is that like for you, Kitty, seeing him get back in that boat?

- It was a great day.

I mean, I've been watching him train all summer on a lake off and on, and most of the family was there and a lot of his Olympic boat mates from '72 were there.

So that was his former coxswains and people like that, and our daughter and grandchildren, everybody was just very excited about it.

And it was just thrilling, you know.

- It was a beautiful day and a beautiful moment.

- It was.

- I'm sure, I'm sure, you know, situations like these, especially when you didn't see them coming, they change your perspective.

So how would you say that this health experience has changed both of you if in any way?

- Well, the things that I think about it's changed the way I move because in the beginning I had trouble on my left side because the clot was on the right side of my brain.

So I think about moving, which is important as you get older, how you walk and worrying about steps, and going around corners and not moving too fast, and not climbing on ladders.

- Yeah, wow.

- And the other thing is, I've become much more emotional than I was.

I can't explain that, but it seems to have happened.

- You know, your gratitude just really shines through.

I enjoyed so much the research of your story because it's such a beautiful thing when we can come out on the other side.

- Yes.

- Indeed.

Kitty, how has this changed you and your relationship with your husband?

I mean, it's been 53 years, but what has this experience done for you in terms of how you look at Monk?

- You know, every moment you're grateful I have to say, but at the very beginning I have to also say I was very hypervigilant, and annoying him quite a bit I think to be careful.

And when he would get out the ladder, I'm like, remember we don't do ladders and we haven't done ladders for 10 years, but I mean, you do really look at life completely differently.

And it's sort of a hackneyed phrase, but it is really true.

It took us a while to realize, and maybe about three or four weeks what we had been through because it was a traumatic event.

So I work in trauma myself, so I know that we were both traumatized.

And so it made it even more emotional.

And I think when it hits him, he gets very emotional, you know.

- I wanted to say, I'm thinking about the ambulance and the ability for people to monitor you while you're in there.

- It's amazing.

- That technology, Monk, how do you feel about not just Kitty's response, but the response of everyone that came to your aid?

What does that make you feel?

- It makes me feel so grateful as you were saying.

And I actually yesterday reached out to the Coral Gables EMTs.

I have not met them, but I'm gonna find them because they were the first responders.

- [Carla] Yes, they're incredible.

- And they were amazing, I mean, it's incredible.

- It's incredible what human beings are able to do, the way that they're able to train.

- They knew exactly what to do.

- Yeah.

- And they said, "We're going to Baptist."

- Yeah.

- And Kitty said, "Okay."

- Yeah, and you couldn't be there saying, no, I'm fine.

- [Monk] Right.

- Thank goodness for other people.

- They hauled me out of the house and threw me in the truck.

Well, they didn't throw me in the truck, but you know.

- No, I gotcha, I gotcha.

I mean, we're here smiling and laughing about this, but thank goodness that we're able to do that.

As you mentioned, Kitty, this was a traumatic experience for both of you, but we are able to show our audience that with all of the technology that is available, with people like Dr. Wicks, we certainly can come out grateful on the other side.

You certainly are here.

Timing is everything.

And also having a partner who knows when to make an important phone call is so important.

Your story is indeed a hopeful one.

And I wanna thank you all for being here today and sharing your story.

And Dr. Wicks, thank you for letting our audience know that it can be a hopeful situation if you get the help in time and watch out for those signs.

- Right, I mean, he's made an amazing recovery.

It's really been an honor and a blessing to be able to participate in his care.

- Well, thank you, Dr. Wicks.

- Thank you.

- We think about you every day, so thank you, Dr. Wicks.

- Thank you, Dr. Wicks.

Thank you Kitty and Monk.

Thank you everyone for watching "Hope is Here."

Be well.

(uplifting music)