Apart from taking a photo of ourselves, there really isn’t much that selfies can do, or is there? Well it seems that a 49-year old Canadian woman managed to take a selfie that actually helped her doctors diagnose what was wrong with her. The woman, Stacey Yepes, was driving when she felt a numbness down the left side of her body, which prompted her to pull over and begin recording her own symptoms and talking into the camera.
She then tried to smile in the video and lift her hand but was unable to do so. When the doctors were shown the video, they diagnosed it as a transient ischemic attack, also known as a ministroke. Further tests also helped them discover that the stroke was caused by atheroschlerosis, which she is being treated for now and is expected to make a full recovery.
According to Dr. Cheryl Jaigobin, the stroke neurologist at the Toronto Western Hospital’s Krembil Neuroscience Center (via CBC), “In all my years treating stroke patients, we’ve never seen anyone tape themselves before. Her symptoms were compelling, and the fact she stopped and found a way to portray them in such a visual fashion, we were all touched by it.”
Prior to her selfie video, Yepes had actually went to the emergency room when she felt a numbness in her face, but when the symptoms subsided, doctors initially diagnosed it as stress. According to Yepes, “It was just to show somebody, and I thought if I could show somebody what was happening, they would have a better understanding.”
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