Robert Passmore

"He was having a brain attack."

Robert Passmore felt a strange sensation as he was sitting on the couch one day. He tried to get up, but couldn’t. After a few minutes, he realized the entire left side of his body had gone limp.

“I didn’t know what was going on, but I knew something was wrong,” Robert said. “I thought I might be having a small heart attack.”

Robert wasn’t having a heart attack. He was having a brain attack. His cousin drove him to the local emergency room where doctors told him he had a stroke.

Robert remembers thinking, “This can’t be happening. I’m 38 years old.”

Doctors at the community hospital gave him tissue plasminogen activator, also known as ‘the clot-buster,’ and he was flown, via the UF Health ShandsCair helicopter, to the UF Health Shands Comprehensive Stroke Center.

Anna Khanna, M.D., a UF Health vascular neurologist, issued a stroke alert after receiving the phone call for a consult from Robert’s emergency doctors.

“Once a stroke alert is initiated, our process flows very smoothly,” Khanna said. “We have excellent communication with the ShandsCair team, and collaboration with the emergency and transfer teams, neurologists and neurosurgeons is key.”

Robert, who had a complete occlusion in the right middle cerebral artery, was rushed to the endovascular angiography suite, where Brian Hoh, M.D., a UF Health cerebrovascular/endovascular neurosurgeon, completely removed the clot in 22 minutes.

Five days later, Robert walked out of the hospital with no residual effects from the stroke.

“I still can’t believe what happened to me,” Robert said. “I had a stroke, but I am fine now, watching my kids play football and helping with the family barbecue business.”