Valley nurse saved by co-workers when she has stroke at work

PHOENIX - A Valley nurse was saved by co-workers when she had stroke at work.

A stroke is typically thought of as something that happens to seniors, but that’s not always the case.

“All of the sudden it just dawned on me, I’m like, oh my God I’m having a stroke,” said Rebecca Keller.

The 31-year-old nurse was at work at Banner Good Samaritan Medical Center when she had that realization.

“I have zero risk factors for stroke. I’m not over weight; my cholesterol is well within normal ranges. I don’t have high blood pressure, I work out regularly,” said Keller.

But her symptoms made it pretty clear.

“My entire face went numb and then my tongue went numb,” said Keller.

Then her left leg and arm, that’s when she fell flat on the floor. Rebecca’s colleagues jumped into action. She ended up having a procedure to remove clots in her brain. Amazingly it was performed in the very department she works in, by her friends and co-workers including Dr. Jeremy Payne.

“Honestly, the most difficult part was trying to figure out who was going to answer the phone calls about her the next day,” said Dr. Payne.

He says while a stroke in a 31-year-old isn’t typical, you can’t ignore symptoms simply because you’re young.

“Sudden weakness on one side of the body, sudden numbness, very severe headache, sudden change in your vision; the only solution is to call 911,” said Dr. Payne.

Lucky for Rebecca she was in the right place at the right time and is now back to work with a new sense of what it’s like to be on that table in the procedure room she works in everyday.

“You can’t properly thank someone for saving your life. It’s put everything into a completely different perspective for me,” said Keller.