In short:
A Sunshine Coast concreter suffered three strokes across 24 hours before going to hospital for treatment.
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concreter → suffer → treatment
His nurses say he was "lucky" considering time is a critical factor when treating strokes.
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time → say → strokes
The 39-year-old has since overhauled his life and is warning others to look out for stroke symptoms.
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old → overhaul → symptoms
When Dru Arnold was struck suddenly by slurred speech and a migraine, his first instinct was to try to sleep it off.
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instinct → strike → it
The 39-year-old concreter had no idea he was enduring a potentially deadly stroke.
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he → have → stroke
And in the 24 hours it would take him to get to hospital, he suffered two more in quick succession.
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he → take → succession
After his wife called an ambulance, doctors found he had also been hit by a stroke two years earlier.
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he → call → stroke
Seven months on since his February scare, he has mostly recovered, but his speech is still affected.
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speech → recover → scare
"There's a lot of people that have got it worse off than me," Mr Arnold said.
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Arnold → be → me
The fit and healthy Sunshine Coast man said he was unaware of the basic stroke symptoms until after his emergency.
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he → say → emergency
"People that are just living their normal lives don't know much about strokes and about the symptoms and signs," he said.
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he → live → symptoms
One of his treating stroke nurses, Danika Lloyd, said Mr Arnold was "very lucky" considering how long it took him to seek medical attention.
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it → treat → attention
"Being his age, most people probably don't think about that kind of stuff," she said.
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she → think → stuff
Strokes do not discriminate
Queensland Health ranks strokes as one of the leading causes of death in Australians.
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Health → discriminate → Australians
In 2024, strokes claimed 9,147 lives and, on average, affected someone every 11 minutes.
Sunshine Coast University Hospital (SCUH) stroke clinical nurse consultant Bailey McNamara said time was the most critical factor when it came to surviving a stroke.
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it → claim → stroke
"We notice that a lot of people just sit on their symptoms at home," she said.
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she → notice → home
"By the time they get to hospital, sadly, they're out of that timeframe for us to be able to provide that hyper-acute therapy such as the clot-busting medication."
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us → get → medication
Mr Arnold was treated by the team at SCUH, which recently won an international award for how quickly it was able to treat the dangerous clots.
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it → treat → clots
Lifestyle choices play a part
Ms McNamara said 80 per cent of strokes could be prevented.
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cent → play → strokes
She said it was important for people to eat well, exercise, monitor cholesterol and blood pressure, have regular GP check-ins and blood tests, and stay on top of any heart conditions or diabetes.
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people → say → conditions
Binge drinking, smoking, vaping, and taking illicit drugs were among the major risk factors.
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drinking → take → factors
Stroke Foundation Australia's Kelvin Hill said strokes were increasing in people under 65.
"Over the past 10 to 15 years, things like obesity and the rise in diabetes have also meant that for some people they're getting strokes earlier than what we've seen in the past," he said.
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he → say → past
"We do need people to be more aware because every minute a stroke occurs, there are 1.9 million brain cells that die when they don't get the nutrients and oxygen in the blood supply.
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they → need → supply
"
Awareness could save lives
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Awareness → save → lives
Mr Hill said people needed to be aware of the symptoms and act quickly.
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people → say → symptoms
"One in four people in their lifetime will be impacted," he said.
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he → impact → lifetime
The symptoms of stroke include facial droop, arm weakness, slurred speech, headaches, and brain fog.
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symptoms → include → droop
Mr Arnold said he wanted to help people understand what strokes looked like and how they should respond.
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they → say → what
"It doesn't necessarily have to happen to you, but if you see the signs happening to someone else, you could save their life," Mr Arnold said.
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Arnold → have → life
"If we knew, I could have been better than I was, we could have got to the hospital a day earlier, and it might not have been so bad."
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it → know → hospital
The Aporia