LYNNWOOD — Sometimes things aren’t what they seem.
Such was the case Sept. 20 when Lynnwood police received a 911 call of an apparently intoxicated woman trying to get into her car in a parking lot off of 196th Street SW.
The call was logged at 1:16 p.m.
Officer James George arrived two minutes later. He began talking to the 60-year-old woman who was leaning against her vehicle.
George asked her a series of questions.
Each time, she replied ‘Yep,’” even when it wasn’t a yes or no question.
The rookie patrol officer, just a few months into working the streets solo, didn’t smell alcohol. Nor were there signs of drug use.
Yet something clearly was wrong.
The woman’s right arm drooped. Her right leg couldn’t support her. The right side of her face sagged. She lacked balance.
Instead of bringing out handcuffs, he called for a medic.
And, to this day, the woman is grateful.
When medics arrived, they asked her to raise both arms. She couldn’t raise the right one.
“That’s when they were saying, ‘Okay, she is having a stroke,’?” George said.
The woman, who asked that her name not be used, credits the quick and accurate assessment by George and the Lynnwood medics with getting her timely treatment.
Strokes are caused when the flow of oxygen-carrying blood to a portion of the brain is blocked. Without oxygen, brain cells start to die. Minutes count.
Doctors removed a blood clot. The woman spent time in the hospital, but it appears there was no permanent damage.
“Frankly, it was a miracle,” she said. “If they didn’t give the quick response, I would have been in trouble.”
Her memory of what happened that afternoon is cloudy. She said she had no idea of what was happening to her when she was having the stroke.
“I was walking across the parking lot and all of a sudden I see a police officer looking down at me and saying, ‘What’s going on?’”
Each year, roughly 700,000 Americans suffer a stroke. Recognizing the symptoms fast is critical, according to the American Stroke Association. It can mean the difference between life and death and between full recovery and permanent disability.
The woman understands how lucky she is. She stopped by the Lynnwood Police Department the other day to shake George’s hand and thank him in person.
George doesn’t believe he did anything out of the ordinary.
“I was really glad to see she had recovered fully,” George said. “I feel I was just doing my job and anyone else would have done the same thing.”
Lynnwood police Cmdr. Jim Nelson said the woman’s good fortune started with the person who reported her as a potential drunken driver.
“The initial caller could have easily walked out to their car and driven away,” Nelson said.
George didn’t have tunnel vision and soon understood he was dealing with a medical emergency, not a crime, the commander said.
“Every call is different and with every call it’s important to use your training and your observations,” Nelson said. “It tremendously affected this person’s life.”
Eric Stevick: 425-339-3446; stevick@heraldnet.com.
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