However, tens of thousands of people have strokes and don't know it themselves. Guadalupe Villalobos never expected to find herself in Parkland Hospital's emergency room. At a routine doctor's appointment, she casually mentioned an annoying numbness she had been having since Saturday. She and her daughter were both stunned to find out that that strange feeling was the sign of a stroke. She didn't know at all.
Stroke is the result of a clot that cuts off blood to a certain part of the brain.
They just don't know it, said Dr. Paul Pepe, UT Southwestern Medical Center emergency medicine chairman. Dr. Pepe sits on a national advisory council for treating stroke and trains the doctors at the White House. He says it's not uncommon to misdiagnose a mini-stroke like the one former President Ford experienced. Factors like age, family history, high cholesterol and blood pressure, smoking and diabetes predispose some people to stroke. Guadalupe Villalobos has had two strokes in the past and is the seventh person in her family to fall victim.