Win 4 Wes

On Sunday, March 22, 2026, my son Wesley had a spinal stroke.

He’s only 15 - a sophomore - an avid golfer. And that’s what he was doing when this happened. He was in a golf lesson at 11am with his coach when he started to feel dizzy and had weird feelings in his hands. He needed to sit down. They gave him Gatorade and then he texted his dad at 11:36. By 12:08 they got home and he had started losing by feeling in his legs and couldn’t grasp anything. He looked at me in the car when I went to check and said, “Mom, am I having a stroke? Or am I dehydrated?” I said I dunno buddy and they rushed off to the ER.

the ER admitted him immediately by then he had to be in wheelchair. I arrived 1/2 hour later when my husband told me to come. I got rushed back and he was hooked up to everything and being given oxygen. I almost fainted. I didn’t expect this so quickly and neither did the doctors.

They did a CT scan and nothing came up. They had to intubate him to breathe because off the oxygen when they changed it he was gasping for air and struggling to breathe.

They got him stabilized enough and said he had to get to Lurie for an MRI and neurology team would be waiting.

They arrived at Lurie at 4:30pm. I got to Lurie at 5:15pm. The sedated him enough so that he was comfy but a that he could awaken and acknowledge if he felt something. The MRI took 5 hours. After 3 hours the neurosurgeon team came to give us an update that it may be in the brain stem - that far up - she did not look positive. I could barely speak.

Update was that he had a spinal stroke. So rare. C1-T7 area. Paralyzed from the collarbone down. No cure but treatment is to reduce further damage...