Arkansas is part of what the American Heart Association refers to as the stroke belt, a region in the southern United States with higher stroke mortality. For decades, Arkansas has ranked among the worst when it comes to strokes per 100,000 people and stroke deaths per capita. May is National Stroke Awareness Month. The National Institute of Neurological Disorders reports about 80% of strokes are preventable, and the Arkansas Department of Health reports about 32 Arkansans are hospitalized each day because of a stroke. All of this — Arkansas's ranking, Stroke Awareness Month — led us to invite Earvin Young of Rogers to the Anthony and Susan Hui News Studio Monday.
"I've learned more about strokes and everything else after having a stroke."
Earvin says he's determined to tell more people more about strokes. Earvin had two strokes in a period of 10 days in January 2025. Until then, he hadn't thought he was a likely stroke candidate. He was an avid exerciser, worked as a human relations executive and felt pretty well. On Jan. 2, 2025, he was watching college football with his son, and his son left to go to work.
"I don't remember anything after that. The next thing I remember is him coming in saying, 'Dad, where are you at?' And I was basically on the bathroom floor because I guess I got up to go to the bathroom, lost my balance, fell, and I couldn't get back up. I do remember him trying to help me up, and my legs felt like putty. Like jello. I couldn't get any stability. He helped me up, helped me dress. He's like, 'Are you okay?' I don't even know what I said to him. But then he said, 'I'm just taking you to the hospital.'"
That turned out to be two hospitals. Medical professionals at the first referred Earvin to the Stroke Center at Washington Regional. After two days there, he was admitted to a rehab hospital, where he had his second stroke. Then he was back at Washington Regional.
"I guess they did the surgery. They found the blood clot that was in some part of my brain. The next thing I know, I was just waking up, and that's how I woke up to the doctor talking to my wife about something. At that time I was basically paralyzed and had limited speech. It was like an out-of-body experience because you can hear everybody around you talking about you, saying stuff, and you think you're responding, but you're not."
Kellams: That must be frustrating.
Young: It's very frustrating because it's like you're locked in your own body. And remember, I was paralyzed. That was the other frustrating thing because it seemed like every five minutes somebody was coming in — squeeze my hands, move your feet, do this. And I think I'm doing it. And they're like, "Yeah, there's no movement. There's nothing." That’s the most frustrating thing.
Kellams: Is there conversation going on as if you're not cognizant or awake?
Young: That's the way it feels. Everybody was there — I remember people coming in and out visiting, I remember the chaplain coming in. Different things I vaguely remember, whether it was the first day, the fifth day, I don't know. My wife says I was in and out. I never saw a picture of what I looked like until my wife showed me — I was basically hooked up to a respirator, tubes and hoses running everywhere. IVs in each arm, in each hand.
Kellams: You said you've learned much more about strokes. And I know that medical agencies want us to know about what could be leading up to a stroke. But there's also life after a stroke, and what that's like. You rarely hear about that.
Young: And I'll tell you, that's really the part that's important. The stroke is a stroke — if it happens, there's that. But there is life after, because for every ending, there's a new beginning. After stroke, you really have to spend time. I never want to go back to being who I was, because who I was is what led me to having a stroke. I want to create somebody new. I want to be somebody different. After stroke, everything about you is disabling. But it doesn't change your identity. It does, but it doesn't, because there are parts of me that are still me. And there are parts of me where I've learned about myself. I've gotten into art therapy and creativity. If you'd asked me before I had my stroke, that stuff never interested me. Now I love to paint. I love to do different things.
Kellams: Those things beforehand — I bet you worked a lot.
Young: I did. I was in the office a lot. Before the stroke, I worked a lot as an executive, traveled a lot. I never would have thought about being creative. I like to write now. I've started a whole blog about life after. This is my way of sharing that there is life after a stroke. I think for a lot of us, it's like, well, it's not going to be me.
Kellams: You were cycling, right?
Young: Avid cyclist. In Northwest Arkansas, I was riding 40 or 50 miles every weekend. I go to the gym just about two, three, four times a week. I'd go for walks. I was pretty active. So when I heard about stroke, I was one of the people that was like, "Yeah, that'll never happen to me."
Kellams: Looking back now, if you knew then what you know now, would you have known that a stroke was more of a possibility for you?
Young: Oh, yeah. After my stroke, another thing I learned — one of the things I write about on my blog and make sure everybody understands is when you have a stroke, your stroke doesn't just happen to you. It impacts your family members and everybody else around you. I had asked my brother about how my stroke affected him. And one of the things he wrote back about was that I was the fifth person that year in our family to have a stroke. Until he said it, I hadn't thought about it. My mother had died in October 2023 of a heart attack. I was cognizant of heart disease and heart attacks because my mother died of a heart attack, my father died of a heart attack. So I knew there was a chance — that's why being healthy and staying active was so important to me. But until he said, "You're the fifth person this year in our family," I hadn't thought about it. What people don't understand with strokes is that if it's in your bloodline or part of your heritage, it doesn't mean you're definitely going to have one, but it does raise the risk. Be aware. Knowing what I know now, stroke and heart disease — some of the symptoms are a lot of the same. I probably would have done something different, or paid attention a little bit more.
Art therapy has been so much of a blessing. Just painting. It doesn't matter whether it's paint by numbers, painting on a blank canvas, painting on a picture. There's something stimulating about when you think of all the colors. It's relaxing —
Kellams: I was going to say stimulating, but meditative at the same time.
Young: It gives you — I'm able to concentrate. I'm only focused on what's in front of me. I'm not as steady as I used to be, but it's that concentration of trying to hold the paintbrush steady. It's hard to explain. One of the things when you talk about stroke — there's a book by Debra Meyerson called Identity Theft, probably the most impactful book I've ever read, because a lot of the stuff she talks about in that book are the things I was going through. When people have a stroke, you're only as good as the last person the doctor saw. Because I was paralyzed, had limited speech, one of the things the doctors wanted to do was give me depression medication. And I said to my wife, I don't think I'm depressed. What's really frustrating about that is no one ever came in and talked to me. So when we think of stroke and mental health, I'm a big advocate of — just like we have the physical therapist, the occupational therapist, the speech therapist, the doctors, the nurses — we need to add a mental health professional to that. It doesn't matter to me whether it's a psychiatrist, psychologist, whatever. Somebody just come in and talk to the person, and then you can determine the level, rather than just arbitrarily giving them medication. I'm not saying it isn't real, because it is. I can see why, because one day you're fine, you're riding a bike, and the next day you can't do anything. That really messes with your mind. I truly get it. But I was lucky enough, though I had to advocate for myself and find my own therapist, that my therapist introduced me to something that really worked for me — how do you create this new identity? What you were before is not what you are now.
Kellams: You have a blog. Can people read it?
Young: Yeah, absolutely. I have a blog called Life After. I want to talk about life after stroke, but life after can be anything — life after retirement, life after a heart attack, life after cancer. It can be about anything, because the thing I want people to understand is there's always a life after something, whatever that major transition point is. Think of it that way. It's a transition point.
Kellams: Last question. I hope this isn't trite.
Young: No, it's not. I'm pretty much an open book.
Kellams: We don't want anyone to have to go through a stroke. But it did happen. You had two in 10 days. Is there any silver lining?
Young: For me, it pulled me closer to my faith. I read a lot more. It introduced me to things I probably would have never thought about. It also crystallizes what you're really passionate about. Because the one thing I will say about having a stroke is you do, for that period of time, realize — this can all be taken away like that. So if it comes to that, what do you want your life after to be?
Earvin Young lives in Rogers. Our conversation took place Monday at the Carver Center for Public Radio.
By the way, the acronym BE FAST is cited as a way to determine if you or someone near you is having a stroke. The letters stand for: Balance, as in sudden loss of balance; Eyes, as in sudden blurred, double or loss of vision; Face drooping; Arm weakness; Speech difficulty; and T for time, since every second can count when it comes to surviving a stroke. Should you or someone near you be experiencing these symptoms, call 911. You can find more about strokes and contributing factors at stroke.org.
Ozarks at Large transcripts are created on a rush deadline and edited for length and clarity. Copy editors utilize AI tools to review work. KUAF does not publish content created by AI. Please reach out to kuafinfo@uark.edu to report an issue. The audio version is the authoritative record of KUAF programming.
