Almost every one of us knows someone who has been affected by stroke and heart disease - which claim far too many lives. Now is our chance to make a difference!

My dad was sitting across from me at the dinner table and he started having trouble getting words out to the extent that my husband too his hand and said "John, you seem to be just struggling with words right now, aren't you?" My dad nodded. That triggered something right there and I said, "Dad, lift your arms up" and he struggled with one. I instructed him to stick out his tongue and one side of his tongue was drooping (his entire face was not). I told my husband to call 9-1-1. I called my girlfriend and said to her "My dad is having a stroke - which hospital" (as I knew they would ask and I was new to Cedar Rapids). 

He was, indeed, having a stroke - from us noticing to paramedics in our house was less than 5 minutes.