FORT LAUDERDALE, FLA. (WSVN) - A South Florida man who suffered a stroke while driving said he survived the medical emergency thanks to the quick thinking of his wife.
Seventy-year-old Dexter Clark is recovering at home after being discharged from Broward Health Medical Center on Tuesday.
“If nothing was done for him, he would not be alive,” said Dr. Ceslo Agner, an interventional neurologist at the hospital.
Back on June 12, he said he and his wife, Valerie Clark, were on their way to church in Fort Lauderdale when their routine drive took a frightening turn.
“As I was going to the church, my normal route, when I go to the church, for some reason, I turned down the wrong road,'” said Dexter. “I remember that I said to my wife, ‘Baby, I don’t know where I’m at.'”
Derek then started to mumble, and his facial features began to droop. Valerie began to recognize he was having a stroke.
Valerie said her husband somehow managed to get to the church’s parking lot, and that’s when she jumped out of the car, fearing they were going to crash.
“I said, ‘Listen, it’s going to be OK. You’re going to be OK. Just relax,’ and I said, ‘God got you,'” she said. “I said, ‘Don’t panic.’ I said, ‘I’m going to come to the other side, but first I’m going to call 911.'”
The concerned wife then called for help.
“I called 911 dispatch, and the lady answered, and I said, ‘Look, my husband is having a stroke,'” she said.
Paramedics quickly arrived at the scene and rushed Dexter to Broward Health Medical Center.
Doctors there found a clot in his brain and performed surgery to remove it.
“We noticed that he had a clot. It started in the carotid, in the neck, all the way up,” said Agner. “I was able to help him. We gave him the medication, the TPA, but in addition to that, we did a procedure that went all the way from the artery in the leg into the brain, and I was able to take the clot out.”
Dexter said he is very thankful for the doctors and staff who saved his life, but he added, another special someone played a crucial role in his miraculous recovery.
“I say, ‘This is my wife. This is my other half. She’s my soul mate, She’s my best friend,'” he said, “and to the day I’m no longer here, I’m always going to be indebted to her because she actually saved my life.”
Doctors said Dexter has been recovering well from his surgery.
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