Hawaii TIA

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I, Karl Loren, went to Hawaii in early December, traveling with my son, his new wife and my wife.

I wanted to join my son in a snorkeling activity one afternoon -- I have done a lot of snorkeling and scuba diving.

As I swam out into the water, it was gentle waves, back and forth, over shallow water covering coral -- perhaps only two feet deep.

I wore snorkeling fins and could easily stand up on the coral, with the fins to protect my feet from cuts.

As I swam out I quickly and uncharacteristically started gasping for breath. I lost all my energy to swim and could hardly breathe.

I was out about 200 feet when I realized that I could not swim further. The water was still shallow. I stood up on the coral. Within a minute my son Garth also stopped further swimming. I could hardly talk. I made it clear that I could not swim any further. He asked if he should go back to land for a flotation device -- there didn't seem to be any way he could tow me back to shore over the coral.

He swam back in and returned with an inflatable raft and towed me back as I hung on to it.

When I got close to shore there was sand to replace the coral, but I could not stand up and could hardly breathe.

My wife was standing out in the shallow water ready to give me the special "assist" that I knew would help me and that she could give.

I lay in the shallow water, gasping, for several minutes until her assist improved my condition enough so that I could stand up. More assist, and I could walk. -- back to the room to put Neo Sporin in my bleeding legs from the coral.

When I breathed I could feel and hear gurgling in my lungs. I figured that the waves had made it difficult to swim well and that I had breathed in some sea water and that this was the cause of my problem.

It never occurred to me that something like a stroke had happened??

By the next morning I had no more symptoms except very sore knees and legs -- from the coral. There was practically no more gurgling in my lungs and by the time of one more day I had no more symptoms and went back to the normal enjoyment of a vacation in Hawaii.

Only a few weeks later when I had an "event" and started my research did I figure that the event in Hawaii was an "TIA," or "Transient Ischemic Attack." and worthy of some serious attention.

However, I would have refused any medical intervention there in Hawaii, but was certainly more interested in medical attention when the full stroke occurred on Christmas Day.

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