Tessa David-Burns was living the life of a healthy, active 28-year-old. A dancer, she had spent five years as a cheerleader for the Indianapolis Colts before joining the Dallas Cowboys' squad. She worked as a spin instructor and nanny on the side and was in a happy relationship with her then-boyfriend, now husband.
"Everything was perfect," she recently told the Indianapolis Star. "And then I had a stroke."
In December 2014, David-Burns was taking a shower when she felt like her right arm had gone numb. Thinking it was just a "pinched nerve," she brushed it off, but when she stepped out of the shower, everything was blurry. Quickly, she felt a massive headache come on and as she tried to go to her room her legs went dead.
David-Burns made it to her bed, where she went in and out of consciousness for 36 hours as she suffered from a near-fatal stroke.
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There are four main keywords to remember with strokes, part of the acronym FAST: F for facial drooping, A for arm weakness, S for speech difficulties and T for time, because every second counts during a stroke to save someone from further brain damage. As David-Burns lay in bed, she was unable to talk and communicate.
"Nothing would come out, like no words would come out," David-Burns, now 35, said.
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