With MGH - Marion General Hospital

When David Callahan
recognized signs of
stroke in his wife,
JoDell, he rushed her
to Marion General
Hospital for evaluation.
50
Stroke
Care
SaveS
the Day
MGH’s partnership with the
StrokeCareNow Network gives
JoDell Callahan the timely
treatment she needed
Vim & Vigor • WINTER 2011
By Randy deffenBaugh
JoDell Callahan’s day was supposed to be
filled with conversation, food and fun, time
spent with family in celebration.
“My son, Zachary, was home from
Arkansas and we were going to follow him, his fiancée
and the rest of our family to Marion for supper to
celebrate his future wedding,” Callahan says.
Instead, the Fairmount resident’s plans with family
would be interrupted and her evening would be
spent at Marion General Hospital’s emergency room,
struggling with the inability to speak and with the
uncertainties of stroke.
As Callahan went about her daily activities, she
sensed something was very wrong.
‘What’s the Matter? ’
When Callahan bent over to fill the dog’s dish, her
head felt strange. As she left the house, she noticed
she put two chairs up against the dog’s gate, “something
that was not necessary and I had never done
before,” she says. Then she felt dizzy and stumbled
slightly as she walked out to her car to drive to Marion.
When she sat down in her vehicle, all she could do
was stare at the steering wheel and laugh. “It didn’t
even sound like my laugh,” she says. Her husband
of 33 years, David, asked, “What’s the matter with