CINCINNATI — Cincinnati is a leader in the nation in stroke research for survivors and people at-risk of stroke. During Sunday's Heart Mini-Marathon event, some survivors will prove their progress during a 1K Steps for Stroke event.
"That's why my parents brought me here," said Bethany Moeddel, a two-time stroke survivor.
Moeddel was just 29 years old, not living in Cincinnati, when she woke up, struggling to walk and feeling like she had an intense hangover. She became unresponsive, but doctors initially didn't treat her for stroke. She said she had high blood pressure and other lifestyle habits that should have been warning signs.
"My whole left side was affected," she said. "And beyond that, it's cognitive. I have trouble finding words sometimes and my attention span is bad. Plus, my whole personality changed."
The University of Cincinnati's place in stroke research leadership gained breakthrough status in the 1980s when a team developeda clot-busting drug to treat ischemic stroke. Dr. Joseph Broderick is still with UC today.
More recently, its Gardner Neuroscience Institute renewed its role as the National Institutes of Health (NIH) StrokeNet National Coordinating Center, meaning it is a center for trials and pipeline for treatments for stroke patients and those at-risk.
Broderick and his team continue innovating, too, within that framework — studying new drugs for treatment and conducting research on more people.
That's especially important to Dr. Stacie Demel, who returned to Cincinnati to continue her work and research on strokes.
"My hope is that with ongoing research we'll be able to treat patients who weren't included in those initial studies," she said. "Maybe it's patients who have some disability at baseline who were included in those initial trials."
Demel was preparing remarks ahead of the 2024 Heart Mini 1K Steps for Stroke walk when we met.
It will be Moeddel's twelfth year participating in the event.
"It's inspiring for the people who are just starting. [They] can't walk or in a wheelchair and they know, maybe next year they're the one that's walking," Moeddel said.
Her first year was just four years after her strokes.
"Oh it was so difficult because I had to walk from the parking garage to the event, which was a feat itself," she said. "I didn't have a cane anymore but every step was difficult."
Since then, she's progressed and trained and walked the Heart Mini 5K.
It will be 16 years in May since her strokes and Moeddel sees improvement still. She's focused now on minimizing her limp. And she's taken on advocacy, speaking to people as young as schoolkids about stroke signs and debunking the myth that strokes only affect the elderly. In February, WCPO 9 first met Moeddel at a presentation at Beechwood Schools.
"Every day I'm doing something to strengthen my left side," she said. "They said I was basically going to have to be in a nursing home and at age 29 I said no."
UC researchers say you should seek immediate medical attention if you have any signs or symptoms of stroke, which they describe using the acronym FAST: Face drooping, Arm weakness, Speech slurring or changes, and Time to cal 911 — the quicker the better.
