她在怀孕后期被诊断出患有先兆子痫，在分娩后5天中风
By Tate Gunnerson, American Heart Association News
Always game for a new challenge, 安德里亚·恩格尔(Andrea Engfer)在她的小镇奥尔廷(Orting)和一位朋友开始跑步, Washington. She liked it so much, she signed up for a 5K. Then another – and so on.
"I try to improve every time, even if it's by 10 seconds," she said. "That gets me going."
这种争强好胜的精神帮助她应对了人生中最艰难的挑战:在分娩五天后从严重中风中恢复过来.
去年春天，安德里亚和她的丈夫马丁对他们的第一个孩子的到来感到非常兴奋. The pregnancy was relatively uneventful until the last three weeks, when Andrea's blood pressure started to increase. She developed preeclampsia, 妊娠期高血压的一种形式，影响母亲的肝脏和肾脏.
Her OB-GYN induced labor 12 days early. 在等待了两天后，艾玛通过剖宫产生下了女儿.
As typically happens with preeclampsia, Andrea's blood pressure went back to normal after she gave birth. Less than a week later, though, she woke up with a migraine. No matter what she tried, the headache worsened.
Worried, Martin drove her to urgent care. 在路上，安德里亚有一种痛苦的感觉，她的脑袋里有什么东西爆炸了.
"On a scale of one to 10, the pain was a 10-plus," she said.
It's the last thing she remembers before losing consciousness.
The staff at urgent care took one look at Andrea and called 911. At the hospital, 医生确定她患了出血性中风，并安排将她转移到另一家设备更好的机构，以治疗像她这样的病例.
Before they loaded her into the ambulance, 一位医生告诉马丁，大多数像她这种情况的人都活不下去了. Andrea was 34 years old at the time.
在设备较好的医院里，医生能够通过手术修复她脑部的损伤. 她一直处于药物诱导昏迷状态，以帮助她的身体从中风和手术的创伤中恢复过来. After 12 days, she regained consciousness.
当安德里亚到达西雅图的一家康复医院时，她不能自己坐起来. Speaking was extremely difficult. 她不会读也不会写，而且很难识别日常用品，比如苹果. 很多次，她都不记得自己生的是男孩还是女孩.
"I cried a lot," she said.
Tears flowed, for example, 当安德里亚的医生告诉这对夫妇，如果她再怀孕, she might face the same sort of complications.
While the couple had intended to have one child, Andrea struggled with the fact "it had been decided for me."
"That was hard to hear," she said.
As difficult as things seemed, 从她的5K训练中，安德里亚知道小步骤可以产生很大的不同.
For instance, in learning to read again, she sounded out each word. She progressed from words to sentences. Then to entire books. 她在使用胳膊和腿、说话和写作方面也取得了同样的进步.
There have been some bumps along the way.
几乎就在她中风一周年的时候，癫痫发作使她无法说话. 医生警告说，在她的大脑完全愈合之前，她癫痫发作的风险会更高，但这几乎无济于事.
"I was freaking out, but it was just a setback," she said. "I still have difficulty at times, but I've come so far."
Indeed, 当安德里亚听说由美国心脏协会赞助的虚拟五公里时, she convinced Martin they should sign up.
"We ran the entire thing," she said.
Martin marvels at Andrea's recovery, 知道她的竞争精神会推动她继续消除自己的局限性.
"She's inspiring," he said.
Determined to make something positive out of her experience, 作为美国心脏协会大使，安德里亚乐于在当地电台和电视上分享她的故事.
"My story could help another person," she said. "I want people to know that there's hope out there."
Stories From the Heart 记录心脏病和中风幸存者、护理人员和倡导者的鼓舞人心的旅程.
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