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Stroke survivors (left to right) Cam Deacon, Jessica Nattin and John David Prentiss, describe their strokes for conference-goers. Image by Bryan Clifton

UAMS Stroke Conference Highlights Care, Statistics, Survivors

Sept. 9, 2025 | Arkansas health care professionals who treat stroke patients gathered Aug. 22 at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS) to learn practical ways of delivering optimal care in their facilities and to learn about advanced care options across the state.

The 2025 Annual Stroke Conference, presented by the UAMS Comprehensive Stroke Center, is a daylong event where attendees can earn continuing education credit while gaining a comprehensive overview of stroke care in Arkansas. It is part of UAMS’ commitment to elevating stroke care in Arkansas.

Much of the subject matter was clinical in nature, presented by experts from UAMS and beyond – from paramedics to nurses to doctors. Topics included care strategies for different types of strokes, a review of medical case studies and an inside glimpse into how emergency medicine physicians at UAMS evaluate and treat stroke patients.

The final presentation came from three stroke survivors who, from a stage in the Fred Smith Auditorium in the Jackson T. Stephens Spine & Neurosciences Institute, shared their personal experiences with the audience of physicians, nurse practitioners, physician assistants, nurses, EMS, pharmacists, students, therapists and stroke coordinators.

Cam Deacon, a commercial real estate broker in Little Rock, said that on the morning of March 15, 2023, he was at home taking a shower in preparation for work when “all of a sudden, I just felt a shock go through my body, and I became really disoriented. I was just standing there, like, ‘What was that?’ I remember holding the loofah in my left hand and looking at it, and thinking, ‘I can see it, but I can’t feel it in my hand.’ It was just a really weird sensation.”

Deacon said he got out of the shower and sat down to catch his breath.

“Something was wrong,” he said. “I didn’t feel like myself. I was dizzy. It was almost like a euphoric feeling, almost like having an out-of-body experience. Then I get up to walk across the room, and when I did, I lost my balance and just kind-of hit the ground.”

Fortunately, Deacon’s wife was there and immediately called her mother, Terry Collins, RN, director of the trauma program at UAMS. Collins asked a series of questions, including whether Deaton could smile normally, and upon learning that his smile was “off,” urged the couple to get to the emergency room.

The stroke team was waiting when Deacon arrived and immediately began tests. He said a CT scan came back clean, but an MRI confirmed he was in the process of having a stroke. He received clot-busting medication, but later that night, while feeling better and filling out March Madness brackets in the ICU, “it happened again, and I couldn’t talk.”

Deacon said tests showed that the blood clot hadn’t completely broken apart and had shifted to a different part of his brain. But it soon dissolved completely, and Deacon said he was fine after that.

Another panelist, Jessica Nattin, 35, described herself as a hard-working farm girl with no known medical problems until her 34th birthday.

That day, she said, “It was super early in the morning and I was getting ready to go and visit my parents in Texas, and my husband had just walked out the door to go to work.”

She said she suddenly felt woozy, like she had stood up too fast, so she sat down. But when she tried to get up, she couldn’t move. Then, “I just hit the floor.”

Fortunately, her husband could hear the thud from outside the house, and rushed back in. Nattin said she was aware of everything going on, and wanted to answer his questions, but, “I could not speak. I could not move.”

Her husband called an ambulance, which rushed her to UAMS in time to receive clot-busting medication and undergo a mechanical thrombectomy to remove a blood clot in her brain.

When she woke up at the hospital, she said, she was still unable to move or talk.

“Nothing was coming out,” she said. “It was just really, really terrifying, just to feel like nothing was working. It was just indescribable.”

When she awoke again later as a breathing tube was being removed from her throat, she was surprised to see family members from Texas and Fayetteville in her hospital room.

Nattin remembered thinking, “Why is everybody freaking out? I just got dehydrated. This is going to be really embarrassing when they find out.”

Instead, they surprised her by telling her that she’d had a stroke.

Nattin said she was able to return to work six weeks later and now feels fine, except for some lingering muscle weakness on her right side.

While both Deacon and Nattin obtained help quickly and had a good outcome, the third speaker, UAMS employee John David Prentiss, declared himself “the poster child of what not to do.”

Prentiss, a research program manager at the Winthrop P. Rockefeller Cancer Institute, said that in April 2024, while he and his wife were visiting his mother in Kansas City, Missouri, he noticed that “my vision was off,” but chalked it up to a history of migraines.

He said he walked around the zoo all day and slept well that night. But the next day, while driving back to Arkansas, “I still didn’t feel right. My vision was off. I almost got in a wreck twice on the highway.”

Prentiss said his wife took over the driving. But after arriving home, he still didn’t go to the emergency room, thinking he was just dehydrated. He did, however, see his doctor on Monday, and the doctor scheduled him for an MRI a week later.

Prentiss said that the following week, just after having the outpatient MRI, he was driving his wife to lunch when his doctor called to tell him he’d had a stroke and needed to go to the emergency room.

Prentiss said that because he didn’t seek help right away, he still experiences “mainly visual and cognitive” deficits. He said he didn’t drive for nine months, but after participating in occupational therapy for his vision deficits at the UAMS Low Vision Clinic, he was cleared to drive. However, after a recent traffic accident, his deficits returned, causing frustration.

Although he is back to working full-time, Prentiss said, “I am just struggling through the cognitive issues.” Meanwhile, he has become an active member of the UAMS Stroke Education and Support Group, which meets monthly at UAMS, and has become a strong advocate for stroke awareness.

The group provides education, encouragement, hope and understanding for stroke survivors, their caregivers and families. It holds lunch-hour meetings at the UAMS Donald W. Reynolds Institute on Aging, but participants can also join virtually. For more information, email UAMSSSG@uams.edu.

Paige Womack, RN, director of the UAMS Health Comprehensive Stroke Program since August 2023, shared a map with conference-goers that shows the different levels of stroke care available across Arkansas.

To help bridge gaps in stroke care statewide, the UAMS Institute of Digital Health and Innovation provides live neurological consultations to emergency departments at about 60 locations across the state, offering on-the-spot stroke diagnosis and treatment.

In 2018, UAMS became the first hospital in Arkansas to earn Comprehensive Stroke Center designation, an indication that it provides the best care available for stroke patients. In addition, for more than a decade, UAMS has received the highest level of stroke recognition by the American Heart Association and the American Stroke Association.

Womack said the process of attaining and retaining certification is “daunting,” but encouraged other facilities to do the same, saying, “Certification provides structure. Collaboration powers the system. Arkansans deserve both.”

Donna Wissler, APRN, a stroke-certified registered nurse at UAMS, said that in 2024, UAMS treated 434 ischemic strokes (when blood flow to the brain stops due to a blood clot or other blockage), 18 subarachnoid hemorrhages (bleeding in the space between the brain and the membrane covering it) and 81 intracerebral hemorrhages (bleeding within the brain).

Ischemic strokes, which account for about 87% of strokes, are the second most common cause of death worldwide.

Speakers emphasized the need to restore blood flow to the brain as quickly as possible after a stroke, because with each minute that passes, 1.9 million brain cells are lost. They also stressed the importance of providing as much information as possible about the stroke, including how long ago it happened, to emergency room doctors to help them determine the best treatment.

Symptoms of a stroke include a sudden loss of balance or dizziness; a sudden change in vision; drooping on one side of the face; arm weakness, particularly on just one side; speech difficulty; and a sudden, severe headache with no known cause