“gets her wheels back”

Two Months After A Stroke

Betty Koelln is an independent 84-year-old who has lived on Star Lake near Dent, Minnesota, since 1961. On the night of June 14, 2018, she got out of bed and fell down, unable to get up. Luckily, her son was staying with her that night, and he immediately called 911. Paramedics in Dent responded quickly and got Betty to the emergency department at Perham Health, 13 miles away, where it was determined she was having a stroke and needed the services of North Dakota’s only advanced comprehensive stroke center at Sanford Medical Center Fargo (SMCF).

Betty doesn’t remember her ride in the AirMed helicopter to SMCF other than landing and seeing all the lights of Fargo. The time from her home to SMCF was 82 minutes. She couldn’t move her left arm or leg, her face was partially paralyzed and she slurred her words. She does remember the stroke team telling her to hold still as they fed a catheter from her groin to her brain to remove the clot.

“When Betty arrived at Sanford, she had weakness on her left side and was unable to move. We did a thrombectomy (a procedure to remove a blood clot) within 35-40 minutes, and we completely reversed her symptoms,” says Dr. Alex Drofa, neuro-intensivist at Sanford Stroke Center.

When Betty woke up, she was surrounded by her six very-worried children. The first thing she said was, “What are you all doing here?” This shocked them, since she couldn’t talk when she arrived.

“She was back to normal and able to go home in 48 hours,” says Drofa. “For someone who’s 84 years old, that’s a miracle.

“As an advanced comprehensive stroke center, we’re able to take care of people like Betty. Our stroke team at Sanford has some of the best response times in the county. That’s why she had such a great outcome.”

Her recovery included a few weeks of physical therapy at her home and then a few more weeks in Perham, and a check-up with her primary care doctor, Jeffrey Blickenstaff, MD, at Perham Health. Two months after her stroke, Koelln passed her driver’s test. “I got my wheels back,” she says proudly. “It’s nice to be able to go where I want to go and come home when I want.”

Today, Koelln is back to her independent self. She continues to keep busy with quilting, playing cards, painting china and other activities, and she still does her own laundry, cooking and housecleaning.

But she also makes sure to take care of herself. She faithfully takes her medications, rests when she needs to and uses a cane when she’s out of the house. She’s grateful for her son being there that night, the EMS teams in Dent and Perham, and for her wonderful doctors and caregivers in Fargo.