Timestamp on Snapchat video helped save a stroke victim's life
Snapchat, the video and photo-sharing app, is being credited with helping to save a woman’s life.
Darnisha Ladd, who typically made fun of her little sister’s Snapchat addiction, may owe her life to the app after she suffered a stroke last year. The 38-year-old Omaha, Neb., woman started to feel lightheaded, dizzy, and developed a headache while at work on July 31, 2017, the Omaha World-Herald reported. At one point, her arm was shaking so much she could no longer move the cursor across her computer screen.
A trip to the emergency room showed she had high blood pressure, but she didn’t show any symptoms of a stroke. After being discharged, Ladd’s mother brought her home, and her sister, Sherita White, a nurse, took over, the paper reported.
White recorded a video of herself on Snapchat taking the IV port out of Ladd’s arm. Eventually, Ladd fell asleep.
“All of a sudden [Ladd] woke up and something didn’t seem right,” White told the outlet. “Her eyes were [rolled] back, and she wouldn’t talk. … I could tell she wasn’t breathing right.”
Ladd, a mother of three, was taken back to the emergency room. Her left side had started to become weak. An hour later, doctors confirmed she had experienced a stroke.
Doctors have four hours to administer a lifesaving drug, Alteplase IV r-tPA, to stroke victims. The medicine helps dissolve the blood clot, which is blocking blood flow to the brain. To administered the medication safely, time is of the essence.
“We can potentially save her life or kill her,” Dr. Vishal Jani, Ladd’s neurologist, said.
Thankfully, White took that Snapchat earlier in the day showing that Ladd had no stroke symptoms earlier in the day. The timestamp from the video showed that the doctors had only 12 minutes to administer the drug. In doing so, the medication saved her life.
Ladd, now 40, has spent the past years recovering from her stroke, which included having a portion of her skull removed due to brain swelling. She attended rehab for physical, speech, and aquatic therapies and had to relearn how to swallow and chew, the Omaha-World Herald reported. She’s determined to become 100 percent herself again, and her family is always there to support her.
According to the American Heart Association, someone in the U.S. suffers a stroke every 40 seconds, and someone dies of a stroke every 3 minutes and 45 seconds. Doctors encourage everyone to remember the acronym FAST to spot the warning signs of a stroke: face drooping, arm weakness, speech difficulty, and time to call 911.
According to the Omaha new outlet, White and Ladd are still on Snapchat — and so is Ladd’s neurologist.
Darnisha Ladd did not immediately respond to Yahoo Lifestyle’s requests for comment.
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