MCDOWELL, Ky. – Stella Castle was ready for Christmas.

“My trees were up, and the house was decorated,” said the 80-year-old Wayland, Ky., resident. “I had done all my shopping and the only thing left was baking gingerbread and candy.”

Her immediate plan for the morning of Dec. 22, 2024, however, was cooking for that afternoon’s Christmas party at Martin Branch Freewill Baptist Church.

“So, I got up and put my baked beans in the oven and got ready for church,” she recalled, explaining the minutes that followed are her last clear memories of the day.

“After I got ready, I was coming out of the bathroom and felt like something was coming down on me – like I was numb,” she said. “I lowered myself to the ground real easy so I wouldn’t break anything, and somehow I made it over to my easy chair, called my son who lives upstairs, and told him I thought I was taking a stroke.

“He put in the car, and that’s basically all I remember.”

Castle, whose home is just 6 miles from McDowell ARH Hospital, doesn’t remember arriving at the hospital where she soon received thrombolytic therapy – clot busting medication that needs to be administered within a short window of time following a stroke.

Nor does she remember the flight to Hazard ARH Regional Medical Center, where she was airlifted for treatment not long after her arrival at McDowell.

“I don’t remember much at all,” she said. “I just know I woke up in the ICU at Hazard and found out I had had a stroke.”

Castle remained in the ICU for four days before she was transferred to a stepdown unit for monitoring and inpatient rehabilitation.

She said she is grateful that she was able to receive her inpatient care at Hazard – just 37 miles from her home in Wayland – as opposed to larger cities which would have taken her more than 100 miles from home.

“That was very important,” she said, explaining the close proximity allowed her husband Elmer, son Randy, and daughter Angel to visit regularly. “My kids both work so they wouldn’t have been able to visit if we hadn’t lived so close.”

And though she said she was grateful to receive care so close to home, she said she was relieved when she was released on Jan. 17.

“Hazard was awfully good to me, and I always felt like everyone there was helping me, but I was really happy to go home,” she said.

Castle has come a long way in the nine months since her stroke.

The grandmother of two credits her physical and occupational therapists at McDowell ARH for helping in her recovery.

“They’ve been really great,” she said, explaining she travels to the hospital three days a week for therapy. “I have trouble with my right side, but I can get up and walk around with a cane and I’m hoping my arm will wake up one day.”

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Castle was in the hospital on Christmas last year, but celebrated with her family on Jan. 18.

This year, she said she looks forward to a return to normal life.

“We’ll celebrate at home,” she said. “I can’t do as much so I won’t decorate, but at least we’ll be together.”

Castle said a stroke is “something you don’t see coming, but it turns your life all the way around.”

Even still, she said, she’s grateful to be alive, is thankful for the care she received and continues to receive at ARH and is blessed with the undying support of her family.

“It’s all because of the help from the Good Lord Above is all I can say.”

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