Quick emergency care and a heart defect fix spark remarkable stroke recovery

Todd Meiklejohn, an adult-education instructor, suffered a severe stroke on Aug. 8, 2025, losing movement on his right side and sight in one eye. His wife, a nurse, found him collapsed at home and called 911, resulting in his transport to Miami Neuroscience Institute at Baptist Health where interventional neuroradiologist Dr. Guilherme Dabus performed a mechanical thrombectomy just 38 minutes after the emergency call. The swift removal of the clot restored blood flow, allowing Meiklejohn to speak and move his right side shortly after surgery and to leave the hospital in less than two days.

Subsequent testing revealed a patent foramen ovale, a small heart opening that had let the clot travel to his brain; cardiologist Dr. Eihab Ghantous oversaw a minimally invasive closure of the defect. Since the incident, Meiklejohn has returned to work within four weeks, completed a 100-mile bike ride, and advocates for rapid stroke response and awareness of hidden heart conditions.