In December 2024, Lynn Stephens was headed to work and looking forward to a Christmas party later that day. On top of the usual holiday cheer, she and her husband, David, were anticipating the birth of their first grandchild within weeks.

As Lynn reached to put her coffee back in her car’s cupholder, “I just knew something was wrong,” said the 54-year-old from Tupelo. “There was no pain, but my whole arm was just kind of asleep. My first thought was heart attack, and I thought, ‘this really could be bad. I probably don’t need to ignore it.’”

The feeling got progressively worse as she drove and by the time she arrived at North Mississippi Regional Pain Consultants, where she works as office manager, her arm was completely numb.

When she told a nurse practitioner “something’s wrong,” her work family immediately sprang into action. “I’m really upset by this point because I know it’s bad,” she said. “One of my scariest thoughts was, ‘I’m about to have my first grandson. Am I going to be here to see him?’”

David drove straight to her office and then to the ER. “By then my right arm was drooping, I had no grip, and the right side of my face was numb,” she said. “As soon as we arrived, they put me on a stretcher and began running tests. They told me I was having stroke-like symptoms.”

A CT scan, lab tests and examination by a neurologist confirmed her diagnosis—a small ischemic stroke, which means the blood supply to her brain was blocked by a blood clot. The clot-dissolving medicine tPA (tissue plasminogen activator) can be given to minimize damage, but it must be given within three hours after stroke symptoms start.

Because Lynn and everyone around her had acted so quickly, she was well within that timeframe. “I was receiving tPA less than an hour after my first symptoms,” she said. “They did a second CT scan after giving me the tPA and everything looked fine. Within 45 minutes of getting TPA, I had no symptoms whatsoever.”

Lynn was admitted to the ICU, where the investigation continued into what could have caused her stroke. Further testing by cardiologist Dr. Dane Ballard identified the culprit as patent foramen ovale, a small hole between the upper two chambers of the heart. Everyone has this hole before birth, but in most people, it closes shortly thereafter.

PFO usually causes no problems, but it can let a blood clot travel from the right side to the left side of the heart – and from there it can reach the brain or other organs.

To prevent another stroke or other event, Dr. Ballard performed a transcatheter “buttonhole” procedure. He inserted a device attached to a catheter (long flexible tube) through a blood vessel in her groin, then he guided it to her heart and closed the hole.

Afterward, she wore a heart monitor for two weeks. It revealed atrial fibrillation, an irregular heart rhythm known to cause blood clots, stroke and heart failure. She is now controlling the AFib with medication.

While it wasn’t the holiday season Lynn had planned, she’s extremely grateful for the good outcome.

“If you know something’s not right, don’t ignore it. It could’ve really been bad,” Lynn said. “Because of the care I received at North Mississippi Health Services, I’m here and I get to love on that sweet baby boy every day.”