Wake-Up Stroke Survivor Grateful for Rapid Treatment and Recovery
October 2, 2026
Last spring, Vince Roddy of Lakeland woke with a start to a loud crash.
He had fallen asleep in his chair the night before watching TV. At 5:30AM, however, he found himself on the floor, along with a cup and TV tray.
His wife ran in and knew something was wrong when Vince couldn’t speak and barely managed a half-smile. She wondered if he had hit his head, so she called 911.
Wake-Up Stroke
Vince had what is known as a “wake-up stroke,” a condition in which someone goes to sleep feeling fine but wakes up exhibiting the symptoms of a stroke, including facial drooping, weak arms, and difficulty speaking. Between 15% and 20% of ischemic strokes – those caused by a clot blocking blood flow to the brain – are wake-up strokes.
The emergency medical technicians who responded to Vince’s house recognized his symptoms immediately and took him to Lakeland Regional Health Medical Center, Polk County’s first and only Comprehensive Stroke Center. A Comprehensive Stroke Center is recognized as providing 24/7 access to the highest level of care for complex strokes and cerebrovascular emergencies.
Rapid diagnosis and treatment is extremely important with stroke, a medical emergency in which blood flow to the brain is stopped or interrupted. Stroke is the No. 5 cause of death in the U.S.
Dr. Sheyar Amin, an endovascular neurosurgeon with the University of South Florida who cares for patients at Lakeland Regional Health’s Brain & Spine Institute, says in the past, treatment options for patients with ischemic strokes were dictated by the clock. Intravenous clot-busting medications have to be administered within 4.5 hours of symptoms starting, and patients with wake-up strokes didn’t know when their symptoms began because they were asleep.
“Today, advanced imaging technology can help us determine how much brain tissue has already been damaged and how much may still be saved, allowing us to make treatment decisions based on the individual patient — not simply the clock,” Dr. Amin says. “At the same time, advances in minimally invasive procedures and technology are giving us more ways to remove clots, restore blood flow to the brain and help patients who may not have had treatment options in the past.”
Rapid Improvement
Although Vince could not speak, he vividly remembers the details of that morning – from the traffic lights outside the ambulance windows, to his hand frozen in a C-shape, to watching Dr. Amin and his team preparing for surgery. “My senses were really heightened,” he says. “I felt like I had chugged a case of Red Bull.”
Soon after Dr. Amin performed an emergency mechanical thrombectomy to remove the clot, Vince woke up in the Neuroscience Intensive Care Unit. He could speak and move his fingers again, and within an hour had regained control of his body.
He felt some pressure in his head for two days before it faded away. Just five days after his stroke, Vince was discharged from the hospital.
Full Recovery
Three weeks later, however, Vince was back at LRH for a minimally invasive procedure to repair a Patent Foramen Ovale (PFO). A PFO is a small opening between the chambers of the heart – and the likely cause of Vince’s stroke. About one in four adults have a PFO, but for most it causes no symptoms and requires no treatment. In some cases, however, a PFO can allow a blood clot to reach the brain, where it can block an artery and cause a stroke.
With the PFO closed, Vince’s doctors have given him an excellent prognosis.
He is relieved to have the procedure behind him, along with some residual effects like an emotional response to things that never bothered him before. Feeling emotional is common among stroke survivors, partly due to damage to the part of the brain that regulates emotion. “I was a mess,” he says. “I couldn’t watch a show with a puppy. I couldn’t take a tear-jerker movie.”
Occasionally, he still finds himself searching for a word when he speaks quickly. But he is grateful to have his life back and happy to be moving forward.
