Alex Wilson Garza had just returned from working a night shift in the E.R. when the “the room just started spinning." 

“I became so dizzy,” says Garza, a nurse at St. David’s Round Rock Medical Center in Austin, Texas. She doesn’t recall what happened next, but her husband, Caleb, says the left side of her face began to droop, and she was slurring her words. When she came to, she remembers her husband trying to slip her shoes on so they could head back to the emergency room.

Garza, who at the time was a healthy 24-year-old who regularly practiced Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, didn’t think it was anything serious. “I had never had a single medical problem,” she tells us. 

That’s why, despite her medical training, Garza never suspected she could be having a stroke. Strokes among young people are relatively uncommon, but within the past few years, rates have significantly risen, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Strokes occur when blood flow to the brain is interrupted, preventing oxygen and nutrients from reaching brain cells and causing those cells to die. It can lead to severe cognitive issues, physical impairment, and in many cases, it's fatal. Among women, stroke is the fifth-leading cause of death, according to the American Medical Association. 

Garza was one of the lucky ones who made a full recovery, in part because of her husband’s quick thinking and the immediate care she received. At the hospital, she was quickly diagnosed with a clot that restricted blood flow to the right hemisphere of her brain. She was put on a tissue plasminogen activator (tPA), known as a “clot-busting” medication, and underwent a thrombectomy, a surgical procedure to retrieve the rest of the clot. 

“I was very fortunate,” says Garza, who was discharged after three days in the hospital. Today, she's perfectly healthy and just as active as she was before her medical emergency — and she's a 2026 member of the American Heart Association's Go Red for Women Class of Survivors, who spread important messages about stroke and heart disease around the country.

Most strokes are caused by atherosclerosis, or plaque buildup that narrows blood vessels and can lead to blood clots. However, in Garza’s case, doctors believe the cause could have been her use of birth control. Hormonal birth control raises estrogen, which can cause blood to clot more readily, and in extremely rare cases can lead to stroke. 

What Garza’s story highlights is the importance of recognizing the signs of a stroke and acting quickly. When it comes to treating strokes, experts like to say “time is brain,” because every minute the flow of oxygen is disrupted, millions of brain cells die. 

B.E.F.A.S.T. is a helpful acronym to help you remember the symptoms:

B stands for balance loss, like the dizziness that Garza experienced.

E is for eye (or vision) changes — a sudden loss of vision or trouble seeing in one or both eyes is common.

F is for face drooping: many patients experience a sagging or numbness on one side of their face.

A is for arm weakness, where one arm feels weak or numb and may drift downward.

S is for speech difficulty, like slurred or incoherent speech.

And T is time to call 911: If someone exhibits any of these signs, they need immediate medical attention.

“Especially as a nurse, I feel like it’s so important to educate patients on the signs and symptoms,” Garza says. “The quicker that you get to the emergency room to address your symptoms, the better chance you’ll have of getting lifesaving treatment.”