Delnor doctor shares story of surviving stroke during Stroke Awareness Month

In 2016, Shaiba Ansari-Ali, MD, a rheumatologist at Northwestern Medicine Delnor Hospital, survived a type of stroke that statistically has a less than .1 percent chance of survival and recovery.

According to a news release from Northwestern Medicine, in her new book, Dr. Ansari-Ali shares her personal account and humorous insight as a physician who became a patient. The mother of two describes what she learned during a functional and meaningful recovery. May is national Stroke Awareness Month.

For years, Dr. Ansari-Ali had experienced increasingly intense migraines and persistent coughing from asthma. One morning, she was finishing clinic notes at home when the room started to spin. Lying on her bathroom floor feeling hot, nauseated and dizzy, she could sense her husband’s alarm, but it was what she didn’t feel that was most concerning. Able to see and think, Dr. Ansari-Ali could not move, speak or swallow, so she knew she was having a stroke.

Dr. Ansari-Ali’s constant coughing had ripped the lining from a small artery that goes to the brain along the back of the neck. A blood clot formed and traveled up into the basilar artery, the major blood supply to the brain, restricting blood flow to her brain. She had suffered a vertebral artery dissection and basilar artery stroke, the release stated.

At the hospital, the medical team administered tissue plasminogen activator (tPA) to dissolve the clot. Soon, Dr. Ansari-Ali felt a jolt go through her body, and she could move her right side again. Undergoing more medical procedures while intubated and seemingly sedated, she was able to observe and process everything. Relieved that she had survived, she focused on recovery. After a setback, she was able to regain her mobility, strength and speech at Marianjoy Rehabilitation Hospital, a part of Northwestern Medicine.

Dr. Ansari-Ali had days where she struggled both physically and emotionally.

“One day I was upset about not being able to write,” she stated in the release. “The therapist turned to me and said, ‘Yes, some people do write beautifully, but they can’t walk.’ That wow moment made me focus on being appreciative for what I could do.” Seeing her husband and two young boys also touched her. “I thought, ‘I have to get better. They need me.’ "

Dr. Ansari-Ali made tremendous progress in three weeks at Marianjoy and was soon able to continue her recovery at home. Now, with a few more years of recovery behind her, Dr. Ansari-Ali has written a book about it, When the Doctor Has a Stroke (How I Recovered and You Can Too). The book is geared toward patients and caregivers, as well as medical trainees, because she wants them to know how important it is to understand the perspective of the patient.

“I felt like the universe came together and saved me, and I had to give something back. I knew I wanted to write a book, but I didn’t want it to be long and overly serious,” she stated. “My inspiration was actually TED Talks. So, I wrote one line a day for six months during the pandemic.”

Dr. Ansari-Ali says she has gained new perspective from her role as a patient and it has made her a better physician. The experience of being aware of everything going on around her, but not being able to move or communicate was profound.

Her advice for patients is to concentrate on being productive and focus on what you can do.

“Stroke survivors regain most of their function in the first few months after the event. So I made sure to work as much as I could for as long as I could. Practicing anything difficult until it was easier was key,” says Dr. Ansari-Ali. “Be in the moment to heal, but look ahead to a year from now, two years from now, and things will be better.”