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Turning Grief Into Teaching Moments

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By MARY SHEDDEN

The Tampa Tribune

Published: May 23, 2008

You're not supposed to lose a sister who's just 43 years old.

But that's what happened to Tampa resident Linda Brown. Her sister, Patti Medley, suffered a brain-stem stroke while visiting Panama City in late March. A week later, she was gone.

They shared a unique story: two distinctly different girls born 15 months apart and adopted into the same family. Growing up, Linda was the tomboy, Patty the girlie-girl. Linda liked Van Halen. Patti loved Barry Manilow.

"We got along in a love-hate kind of relationship," Patti says.

Despite all their differences, they were family. Linda - shocked and numbed by Patti's death - now grieves by reaching outside her comfort zone to share the frightening reality of these "brain attacks" suffered by 700,000 Americans each year, according to the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke.

Linda's not launching a national stroke awareness campaign or lobbying politicians for change. She's just talking to anybody who will listen, and she hopes they're smarter as a result.

"I've got to do something other than cry," she says. "She can make an impact after she's gone, too."

A few months ago, Linda knew nothing about strokes. Now, she knows it's the nation's third-leading cause of death and that getting medical attention is critical immediately after an attack, as damage only increases the longer blood flow is kept from the brain. Like many people, she thought people younger than 65 were immune to stroke. That's not the case.

For example, 23,342 people 65 and older were hospitalized for strokes in Hillsborough County during 2006. Another 9,469 young and middle-aged adults - from 18 to 64 - faced the same health crisis in Hillsborough that same year, the Florida Center for Health Information and Policy Analysis reported.

Linda also realizes people feel awkward talking to her about Patti's death. That's why she's focusing on getting educated, learning about "heart smart" cooking and understanding Florida's Stroke Act, passed in 2004. It created a statewide emergency stroke system that identifies certain hospitals for comprehensive, or the highest, specialized level of care, for strokes. Two of the 10 specialty centers are local: Tampa General Hospital and St. Joseph's Hospital, reports the Florida Agency for Health Care Administration.

Linda recently took her newfound knowledge to the men at the Free and Accepted Masons Hillsborough Lodge No. 25, where she runs the business office. She took over the men's dinner meeting, speaking about stroke risk. She even convinced a friend to prepare a "heart smart" meal for the men she says are skeptical of healthier food choices. But she doesn't want to see any of these men she knows end up feeling so helpless, as she did with her sister.

"If they are aware," she says, "they will know the questions to ask for their loved ones."

Want to share your health and fitness idea? Contact me at (813) 259-7365 or mshedden@tampatrib.com.

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