More than a dozen strokes interrupted – but didn't end – her pursuit of becoming a lawyer

Brianne Rico had a terrible headache during a class in law school. 当她站起来时，她绊了一下. 尽管如此，她还是淡化了正在发生的事情. 她没有线上电子游戏飞禽走兽生病.

那天晚上，头痛加剧了，她吃了止痛药. The following day, her mother, Kathy, convinced her to see a doctor.

扫描显示她有短暂性脑缺血发作, or TIAs, 暂时性的脑部血流阻塞. 医生也不知道为什么. They transferred her to a specialized hospital in the Los Angeles area.

那时，27岁的Brianne感觉很好. 她开始服用血液稀释剂.

“休学一学期，”医生告诉她. "Rest."

但是Brianne不想离开学校. She wanted to rejoin her classmates and keep working toward a career in family law. She went back, graduated two years later, then started studying for the bar exam.

Four days before the big test, Brianne had a headache and her body ached. 她以为是感冒或者流感. She took cold medicine, made coffee, then started walking back to her room. 在走廊里，她绊了一下，撞在墙上.

“你在干什么??" her mom asked.

“我想我绊倒了，”Brianne说.

“小心，”凯西回答.

In her room, Brianne sunk to all fours on the floor, knocking over her law school notes. 它们散落在地毯上. 这些话突然显得很混乱.

“我看不懂这些报纸!布里安惊慌地向凯西喊道. 凯西拨打了911.

Brianne在医院醒来，她的父母在她身边. 她立刻想起了律师资格考试.

"What day is it?她说着，坐了起来. She tried to get out of bed, but the left side of her body was paralyzed.

“你有几次中风，”她爸爸杰瑞说.

"What's a few?布里安回答道.

“到目前为止，”他说，“有13个."

At first, doctors tried a procedure called transluminal ballooning to open blood vessels and help more blood reach Brianne's brain. 多次尝试都没有成功.

布里安需要做颅骨搭桥手术, a surgery to restore blood flow to her brain by rerouting blood around damaged arteries. There was a 50-50 chance the operation would go well, doctors told her. 布里安说了再见.

几个小时后，她醒来时头上缠着绷带.

“她要变成植物人了，”她听到一个医生说.

布里安哭了起来. “离开房间，”她妈妈对医生说. “上帝会决定她是否能走路，以及什么时候能走路." Then she bent down and whispered into Brianne's ear, "You're going to walk again. 我们会到达那里的."

凯西日夜守在布里安的身边. 在医院住了三个月之后, Brianne got a scholarship to spend four to six hours daily for five months in an intensive rehabilitation center to work on regaining mobility.

起初，她感到沮丧和自怜. 她蜷缩在床上哭，不肯离开她的房间. 她父亲来看她.

"You're going to get out of this bed, get into that gym and you're going to walk," he said.

Brianne got up. She started with a few steps, then walked with a leg brace and cane. Her dad bawled and staff clapped and cheered when she took her first few steps on her own.

At home, Brianne walked in loops around her cul-de-sac every day. 很快，她就不需要拐杖或支架了.

Now, more than five years after her strokes, Brianne is living on her own. She walks well, though has occasional nerve pain in her legs and limited function of her left hand. 她还必须更加努力地解读人们的社交暗示.

Brianne开始约会，她有了一个长期的伴侣. She's studying for the bar again, too, and hopes to practice law one day soon. “这件事一直萦绕在我的脑海里，”布里安说. “我拒绝放弃.“她的终极梦想是开一家自己的公司.

"I thought I would never be happy again, and that lasted a couple of years," Brianne said. “但情况确实会好转. 让幸存者明白希望是存在的，这很重要."

Brianne credits her remarkable recovery to her parents' support and to never giving up.

"Without my parents, I would still be in that hospital, curled up in a ball crying," she said. "Surround yourself with a culture of empathy, understanding and hard work."

Counseling helped, too, added Kathy – both individual and family. Brianne坚强的意志也是如此. “布里安是个非常能干的人，”凯西说. "From where she was, and what we were told, she's come a long, long, long way. 她真是个奇迹."

发自内心的故事 chronicles the inspiring journeys of heart disease and stroke survivors, caregivers and advocates.