“Everything started spinning… I just didn’t understand what was going on.”
Nestor Montalvo had a pounding in his head that felt like a hangover headache—except he hadn’t touched a drop of alcohol.
Soon after the pain began, his vision started to blur. When he tried to stand, the right side of his body was numb, and he fell over. His wife immediately called 911, and the 61-year-old retired New York cop was rushed to the hospital.
Montalvo recalled, “Everything started spinning. I went to stand up, and I fell. I just didn’t understand what was going on. I couldn’t understand it. I didn’t know why I was feeling that way.”
The next thing he remembered was waking up to the sound of whispers from concerned family members and doctors. They were murmuring about a “15 percent percent chance of survival.”
A Hidden Killer: “Oh my God, I’m going to die.”
It turns out, Montalvo had suffered an ischemic stroke—a condition where a clot blocks blood flow to the brain, depriving it of oxygen. Stroke is the leading cause of long-term disability in the U.S. and can quickly turn deadly.
According to the CDC, someone in the U.S. suffers a stroke every 40 seconds—that’s about 795,000 people each year. And every three minutes, a person dies from a stroke.
Montalvo admitted: “I was like ‘Oh my God, I’m going to die. I don’t even have a chance to say goodbye to anybody.’”
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“Time is brain.”
Dr. Taylor Kimberley, chief of neurocritical care at Massachusetts General Hospital, told CBS—though she wasn’t involved in Montalvo’s case—“Time is brain.”
The faster someone gets treatment, the more brain function can be preserved. If left untreated, brain damage worsens by the minute.
When Montalvo arrived at Catholic Health’s Mercy Hospital in Nassau, Long Island, in September 2024, his symptoms activated the hospital’s stroke protocol.
Diagnosed in 10 Minutes, Treated in 15
In fewer than 10 minutes, Montalvo was assessed as a stroke patient. Within five minutes, he was in a CT scan. Doctors administered a clot-busting drug called TNK and performed a minor procedure to ensure the clot wouldn’t return.
Stroke impacts critical regions like the cerebellum and brain stem, which control coordination and movement. Once blood stops flowing, cells in these areas immediately start to die.
According to Premier Neurology, anywhere from 7 to 65 percent of stroke patients report some kind of headache.
“I couldn’t talk or swallow for a month.”
Though the initial stroke treatment worked, Montalvo’s fight was far from over. His vocal cords stopped working, and he required a tracheostomy—a surgical procedure to insert a breathing tube through the neck.
For a month, he couldn’t speak or swallow. He underwent daily speech therapy for six weeks and exercises to strengthen his throat and mouth muscles.
After his tracheostomy tube was removed, he had three more procedures to repair his throat. Eventually, he was able to enjoy a Thanksgiving meal with his family.
“Recovering was harder than the stroke.”
Nearly a year later, Montalvo still walks with a cane and continues outpatient therapy. He’s come a long way, but he’s not done.
He told CBS, “Recovering was harder than getting through the stroke itself.”
“You take life for granted, and then when something like this happens, it wakes you up. You hear people talk about it, and it just sounds like it’s not going to happen to you. All of a sudden, it happens to you.”
Source: CBS News / Daily Mail
