
Texas Health
While doing some yard work one day, North Texas local Brandy Pullin realized her lawnmower had run out of gas. Not thinking anything about it, she took off to a store less than a mile from her home, to get more gas. However, during the short drive back, she says she blacked out completely while on a two-lane road in Bosque County.
Luckily, Pullin regained consciousness, only to experience a searing headache and throbbing pressure behind her left eye.
“I was in pain, I was scared, and I didn’t know my way home,” she says.
Pullin would call her adult son, who located her by following her cell phone signal. She quickly found her way to a local hospital to get checked out. But as fate would have it, she was only given a prescription for cluster headaches.
Three days later, still feeling ill from this incident, Pullin wondered if her symptoms could be something more.
This was when Pullin decided to check into Texas Health Stephenville. After running some preliminary tests, the hospital’s emergency department confirmed that Pullin was having a stroke.
After making this diagnosis, paramedics quickly transferred Pullin to Texas Health Fort Worth, which is one of less than 50 comprehensive stroke facilities in the state. In fact, Texas Health Fort Worth cares for the highest number of stroke patients in North Texas, according to hospital data. It’s also the only comprehensive stroke center in Tarrant County with advanced certification from The Joint Commission.
Thankfully, Pullin was able to receive the care she desperately needed, which in turn saved her life. This mother of three who also serves as a Texas Health Business Systems analyst, is grateful to be back after surviving a massive stroke.
According to Yinn Cher Ooi, M.D., an open vascular and endovascular neurosurgeon on the medical staff at Texas Health Fort Worth, the cause of Pullin’s stroke was a severe right cervical carotid artery dissection causing critical stenosis or narrowing of her carotid artery.
“Ms. Pullin’s right artery was so severely pinched in her neck, the remaining opening was the size of a pinhole (around 0.5 mm in diameter), jeopardizing oxygenated blood flow to the brain through her neck,” Ooi said.
Ooi emphasized that without treatment, the strokes would worsen and possibly result in permanent blindness or paralysis for Pullin.
“Worst-case scenario, a large stroke could be fatal,” Ooi said.
Ooi and the care team performed an emergency minimally invasive endovascular procedure to repair Pullin’s damaged artery and help prevent further strokes.
This was made possible by using a thin catheter inserted into a small incision in Pullin’s right thigh. A diagnostic cerebral angiogram showed video imaging of Pullin’s arteries allowing doctors to pinpoint the exact location of the carotid dissection.
Ooi was able to maneuver a small catheter with a balloon on its tip, through the incision, which inflated to open Pullin’s artery. Ooi then inserted a stent to shore up the dissection in an intricate procedure known as carotid angioplasty and stenting.
Pullin would spend two days on the mend, including an overnight stay in the ICU at Texas Health Fort Worth, where she underwent an emergency brain procedure.
“As a Texas Health employee, I never knew we had so many resources available for stroke patients until I became one myself,” Pullin said. “God placed me where I needed to be.”
She may have been on the mend post-procedure, but Pullin’s journey back to the normalcy she knew before this incident is still a goal for this 47-year-old mother of three. Although her pounding headache disappeared after she underwent this procedure, the stroke greatly impaired Pullin’s vision.
“It felt like a line down the middle of my right eye blocked half my vision, and I struggled to see through my left eye as if I wore a pirate’s patch.”
To find out how to treat this symptom, Pullin returned to Texas Health to undergo vision therapy.
“Eye exercises that involve reading and mobility tasks, along with driving simulations, help neurological patients increase their visual processing speed, depth perception, and their hand-to-eye coordination,” Robin Milroy, an occupational therapist at Texas Health Fort Worth says.
According to Milroy, Pullin’s partial vision loss included eye weakness and double vision. After Pullin completed vision therapy, Milroy referred her to an optometrist who prescribed prism lenses, which bend light, alleviate double vision, and strengthen the eyes.
“The end goal is to get individuals back to enjoying life independently, whether they’re participating in leisure activities with loved ones or getting back to work," Milroy says.
Not even two weeks after having a massive stroke, Pullin was back at work in her administrative role at Texas Health.
“As a stroke survivor, I witnessed God’s hands at work the moment I arrived at Texas Health Stephenville and throughout the process at Texas Health Fort Worth,” Pullin said. “I am beyond grateful and blessed beyond measure.”