She is a track and field athlete and a weightlifter. She had no real health problems, until she suffered a stroke.
By IU Health Senior Journalist, TJ Banes, tfender1@iuhealth.org
Five months before tragedy struck, Paige Holder exchanged her wedding vows with her college boyfriend, Zeb. Wearing a sparkly white strapless dress, she smiled at an outdoor wedding in Madison, Ind.
It’s September 25, 2021. The couple met as students at Indiana State University and are excited to start their life together – Paige works in human resources for IU Health and Zeb works for IU Health. army.
On a day that Zeb was scheduled to leave, he had the strange feeling that he should stay home. At 10 a.m. on February 2, Paige had trouble breathing and lost consciousness. Her husband called an ambulance, she was transported to Terre Haute Hospital and then flown via IU Health LifeLine helicopter to Methodist Hospital.
Just a few days earlier, Paige had undergone shoulder surgery to repair a torn labrum. Doctors suggested that the missed period could be due to a combination of her post-surgery sedentary status and a change in her oral contraceptives. The combination could lead to a blood clot in her lungs.
At Methodist Hospital, she underwent thrombectomy to remove blood clots from her arteries and veins and restore blood flow to her vital organs. This procedure is known to reduce the risk of death and permanent damage. This is the first of four procedures performed in seven hours.
She was taken to a room in the ICU to recover and is expected to return home in a few hours. Not long after she stabilized, Holder suffered a stroke.
“It was all very scary and happened so quickly. I am told that the mortality rate in these types of strokes is 80 to 90%,” says Holder.
Within seconds, she was put on a breathing tube and underwent a second thrombectomy to remove a blood clot in her brain.
“When they were done, they told my family it was successful, but I had more blood clots in my lungs and they would send me back for another thrombectomy to remove the clots. there. So my family waited and prayed,” said Holder, daughter of Ron and Kelli Foster. She has a younger sister, Lilly.
Not long after, doctors arrived to inform her family of other developments.
“They removed the clot from my lungs, but noticed that I had lost a pulse in one of my feet and discovered that I now had blood clots on both sides of the arteries to my legs and they even talked about the possibility Mr. Holder said. A vascular surgeon was contacted and her family members were encouraged to visit her prior to surgery.
Another successful procedure removed blood clots from the arteries of both her legs. It wasn’t long before family members received another update – she followed orders and was trying to write notes while on the ventilator.
In total, Holder spent 14 days in the hospital and inpatient rehabilitation for physical, occupational, and speech therapies.
“In a way, it’s all a mystery. I have been tested for clotting disorders and I am negative. They said they didn’t see this many clots even in people with clotting disorders,” said Holder, who is caring for IU Health hematologist Dr. Andrew O’Brien and internal medicine specialist. Faculty Dr. Warren Gavin, said. She anticipates continuing to take blood thinners for the rest of her life, and she says she has changed her form of birth control.
To her knowledge, Holder said the reason for her stroke was a genetic defect. She was born with a hole in her heart.
“A lot of people have a hole in their heart from birth but they don’t have any complications until something like this happens. Usually the hole closes after birth,” she says. She recently traveled out of state to have a special procedure to close the hole in her heart.
She’s frustrated that she can’t take part in Rugged Maniac, an obstacle course she’s been on since her freshman year at Bloomington High, and she says she won’t take the train. more roller coaster. “I was nervous when I cut my finger on a can of dog food because it didn’t want to stop the bleeding for days, but I am grateful to the IU Health team, family and medical staff for helping me get this taste. his mind. 6 months later – 85% recovered,” says Holder. For now, she will enjoy her newlyweds, living with her husband and three dogs.
