Support Ian Applegate's Stroke Recovery

TL/DR: My brother had a rare form of stroke due to vertebral artery dissection. More specifically Wallenberg Syndrome

I’m with him in the ICU. It definitely could have been worse.

Yesterday evening, Sunday Feb 9th, at the end of his first day back at work, after having had the flu all week, my brother Ian Applegate, sneezed. …he sneezed several times. Which was immediately accompanied by a severe shooting pain up his neck to the back of his head and through to his left eye and the world started spinning. The left side of his face went numb with pins and needles that spread down his left arm and leg, as they went weak. He immediately knew he was having a stroke, and called for help. …He sneezed violently enough, that the pressure from the sneeze caused a tear in the inner lining of the vertebral artery, in the back of the neck, that supplies blood to the spinal cord which controls the nervous system, the brainstem which controls vital functions such as breathing, heart rate, and consciousness., and the cerebellum which coordinates movement and balance. This tear is known as vertebral artery dissection. I won’t know until the full CT report later today where exactly the the clot was. But it was caught immediately so they were able to give him anticoagulants to break it up. He will be in the ICU for 24 hours, and here for a few days, then depending on how much functionality he regains he may need to spend a little time at a rehab facility, but only time will tell.