In November 2005, Davida Godett seemingly had it all. She had a great job and was on the fast track to earning her MBA.Then, on an otherwise uneventful Monday morning, Godett crashed: She had a mini-stroke that temporarily stopped the blood flow to her brain.
Godett went to a nearby emergency room and recovered. She didn't really dwell on the fact that she was at high risk for another attack. After all, she reasoned, strokes strike older people, and
she was only 29. Then, right around Valentine's Day 2007, Godett started to slur her words. One side of her body felt numb. She had had a severe stroke.
This time, when Godett, an accountant in Philadelphia, tried to resume her life, she ran into major problems. At work, she had trouble adding up numbers, planning ahead or even thinking clearly.
...
The damage from the stroke had left her with vascular dementia, the second-leading cause of dementia in the USA behind Alzheimer's.
Godett was only 31 at the time. Most people who have dementia are 65 or older, but according to the Alzheimer's Association, an estimated 500,000 people ages 55 to 64 struggle with some form of dementia.
USA Today
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