Lennon suffers rare adolescent stroke

According to medicaldaily.com, approximately 795,000 people suffer a stroke each year, and nearly three-quarters of all strokes occur in people over the age of 65. A stroke occurs when the brain’s blood supply is interrupted, which can cause damage to its cells.

Strokes affect almost 11 in 100,000 children ages 1-18 per year. In teens and young adults strokes have increased by 37 percent in the last 14 years. Riley Lennon, junior, is just one of many caught up in the rise of pediatric strokes.

Lennon and his friend had just gotten breakfast on Thurs. Oct. 20 and were driving home when he suddenly felt as if he’d zoned out. He then noticed the right side of his face fell numb and his head was tingling. When he looked over at his friend to tell him what was happening, he couldn’t speak.

“I knew what I wanted to say but I couldn’t say it,” Lennon said.

Once in his driveway, Lennon tried to get out of the car, but fell over and couldn’t stand.

“It only lasted 2-3 minutes, but that’s when I knew something was wrong, so I went inside and told my parents what had happened,” Lennon said.

His parents called Lennon’s doctor, who told them to take him to the Emergency Room. After an hour wait at the ER, Lennon was sent to a local Urgent Care so he could be seen sooner. There, the doctor took some basic tests and decided to take an MRI of his brain; although a stroke was very unlikely.

“I was back in my room and I thought I was just going home because no one told me anything. But they changed me into a gown and started sticking all these needles in me, putting wires on my chest, and I asked if they were doing more tests and they were like, “No one told you? You had a stroke.”,” Lennon said.

Lennon was then transferred to Children’s Hospital in Minneapolis by ambulance. He was there for four days, while doctors took blood, brain and neck scans, and heart echos. Lennon and his family spent lots of time waiting for answers, while all the tests came back negative.

“I kept asking them if I did something wrong, like if it was my diet, and they kept telling me no which is frustrating because I couldn’t have prevented it,” Lennon said.

After multiple specialists ruled out common causes of strokes, they predict that the stroke was caused by something genetic. Most genetic disorders that cause strokes include inflammatory and noninflammatory blood vessel disorders that are determined through blood tests.

Lennon is awaiting awaiting the results of some of those tests, and has to return to the doctor in one week. He was released with no permanent damage, but instructed to take blood thinners to prevent blood clots, and ultimately, another stroke.

“What’s scary is if I hadn’t gotten it checked, there’s a very high chance that I would have had another stroke within a year that would’ve been much more damaging,” Lennon said. “I got really lucky, especially since I tried to talk, otherwise I probably wouldn’t have told anyone or thought anything of it.’’