When she woke up feeling a bit off-kilter on the morning of Feb. 27, 2022, Paulalynn Bolen chalked it up to exhaustion and her medical history. “I have epilepsy, so I thought I was off- balance because an episode was trying to come on,” she said. At just 54, Bolen had grown accustomed to coping with myriad health problems, and, on top of those issues, she was wading through the depths of grief, as she lost her younger brother to Covid just one month earlier. “I was tired,” she recalled. “But that morning, I was just trying to push through to run some errands.” Within a few hours, though, Bolen knew something was really wrong. “I got to the point where I couldn’t speak clearly and I was stumbling side-to-side,” she said. She was in the parking lot of her bank when she reached out to her oldest daughter who, at the time, worked at Beckley ARH Hospital. “She used my Life360 location to find me,” she recalled. “She recognized I was having a stroke and when she got me to the ER, she yelled back that they had a “stroke alert.” At the hospital, Bolen says it was “all hands on deck” as she underwent a series of scans and bloodwork, which, along with her symptoms, confirmed she had, in fact, suffered a stroke. Though the hospital team moved swiftly to provide the best possible outcome, Bolen said she was struck by the time the doctor took to provide her with a sense of calm and hope. “He held my hand and said, ‘I’m going to be here with you,’” she said. “’I promise you I won’t leave you. We’re going to get through this together.’ “To have someone who is compassionate and willing to treat you like a family member makes all the difference,” she said. “Knowing, in your heart, that you are in good hands is so very important.” Bolen said she has fully recovered from her stroke and now follows up with neurological care every 3 to 4 months. And though she has chosen to receive medical care at Beckley ARH for more than 30 years, she said the treatment she received on Feb. 27, 2022, reaffirmed her faith in the hospital. “My heart and soul truly believe in the BARH administration and staff,” she said. “The kindness and caring is unmatched. I wouldn’t be here without that care. “I truly believe they saved my life.” page 19 PATIENT TESTIMONIAL “I TRULY BELIEVE THEY SAVED MY LIFE.”
