By JENNIFER L. BOEN
Knight Ridder Newspapers

FORT WAYNE, Ind. — Steve Coyle was doing exactly what he loves most that February day in 2001.

“I was redoing a sunroom, putting ceramic tile in,” recalls the 57-year-old building contractor who has earned a reputation for skillful designs and spiral-staircase construction. “I was rubbing the glaze off when my right arm and leg gave out. I thought I’d better slow down. The problem went away somewhat.”

But Coyle, of Fort Wayne, Ind., sensed something still wasn’t right and asked a co-worker to take him home. He went to bed — a decision that would affect the rest of his life.

The next day, “My speech was affected. I knew I needed to go to the hospital.”

Coyle had suffered a stroke or brain attack. Stroke affects about 750,000 people annually in the United States and kills 160,000, according to the National Stroke Association.

There are two types of stroke:

• Ischemic, caused by blood clots that block the flow of blood in the brain or by a blockage from fatty deposits within an artery.
• Hemorrhagic, caused when a blood vessel ruptures; the blood spills into the brain tissue, damaging it.

Like most stroke victims, Coyle ignored symptoms and waited to seek medical help after his ischemic stroke. Had he received medical care sooner — and specifically a treatment called tissue plasminogen activator, or TPA — he says, “I probably would be back to normal today.”

When a stroke occurs, cells surrounding the affected area begin dying, explains Mary Ann Wissman, clinical research coordinator of Parkview Hospital’s Stucky Research Center, which conducts clinical trials of stroke treatments.

Wissman is also assistant nursing coordinator for the Stanley Wissman Stroke Center, named after her late husband, a neurosurgeon.

The brain tissue surrounding the clot can be saved if swelling is prevented, Wissman said. When someone seeks treatment for a stroke, a CT scan of the brain is done first to rule out bleeding. If bleeding in the brain is not present, TPA is given to reduce the swelling and begin the healing process in the tissue.

TPA, aka “the clot-busting drug,” must be given within three hours of the stroke, Wissman said. It cannot be used if bleeding is present.

Statistics from 2001 show only about 2 percent of all people in the United States who had a stroke were getting TPA, Wissman said. In most cases, it’s because they fail to recognize the symptoms. In small hospitals, the drug may not be available.

Coyle could have received the drug, but he missed the crucial window of opportunity.

For four days, he was in a Whitley Memorial Hospital bed, unable to speak intelligibly, unable to walk. His right hand and leg were almost completely paralyzed. He was transferred to Parkview Hospital for a month of rehabilitation.

Although he realizes now he should have called 911 immediately, he has moved beyond regrets and is rebuilding his life.

It has not been an easy road.

He found inspiration in actor Kirk Douglas’ autobiographical account of his stroke, titled “My Stroke of Luck.”

“I read that. I decided that’s enough sitting around and feeling sorry for myself. I had to get going.”

He worked hard in therapy, to the point where he is walking again, has some function in his right hand and talks clearly.

After Coyle’s discharge, Parkview recreational therapist Larry Frazee told him about the hospital’s stroke center’s need for a portable library.

Coyle got busy designing one, and these fall days, visitors to Coyle’s rural Columbia City home are likely to find him, Frazee and friend Carol Briggs out in the builder’s barn-turned-workshop.

“Larry and Carol are my hands,” Coyle said. “I tell them what to do. It’s like being back in business again.”

While he finds satisfaction in seeing the project take shape, Coyle says what’s giving him deepest joy is speaking every other Friday to other stroke patients — people who are where he was a year and a half ago.

“I tell them, ‘Look at me. If I can do this, you can too.’ I say, ‘I couldn’t add one and one. I came out of it. You can too.”