LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- A 31-year-old Louisville man didn't let a stroke stop him from achieving his dreams.
Last November, Russell Deakins was living a regular life, juggling "work, family, two kids." Then, on November 30th, he told his wife he thought he felt a migraine coming on and decided to stay home from work.
"I said 'I'm gonna have a migraine today, just something doesn't feel right." He said he helped his wife and kids get ready for work and school, and then it happened as he was "sitting there with the dogs and had a stroke at noon."
At the young age of 30 years old, Deakins suffered the stroke, at home, alone.
"I was scared, because I was 30 and I couldn't stand up," he said.
Two days after his stroke, things got much worse.
"My brain started swelling," Deakins said, adding that a doctor -- who was on call -- saved his life by performing a procedure called a decompressive craniectomy.
Dr. Tom Yao, a neurosurgeon at Norton Healthcare, explained what happened.
"We had to a put in a tube to drain off that fluid," Yao said. "We had to basically put him in a position to where we had to remove a window of bone and actually open the covering of the brain so that it could swell to the outside, instead of swelling to the inside, and then essentially, basically crushed his brain stem which would obviously end his life."
Deakins survived, and began his recovery in a wheelchair before starting physical therapy. He then took his first steps. That's when "I asked my physical therapist if 10 months out was achievable to do a half marathon and she said 'it's a good long term goal.' And I believe I signed up that week."
Deakins said he did it because he wanted "to prove to myself that I could do it, to set a goal and try to achieve it."
Ten months post surgery, he did achieve it, earning a medal for completing the 13.2-mile Urban Bourbon Half Marathon. "I got super emotional the last 100 yards, because I could see the finish line and I knew I achieved it."
Pictured: 31-year-old stroke survivor Russell Deakins shows his medal for completing the Urban Bourbon half-marathon on Oct. 14, 2023.
Dr. Yao said Deakins is a great inspiration for other stroke survivors.
"Russell and his family are all just wonderful people. It just shows him and his family that the sky's the limit, you can come back from the brink of death to even accomplish your goals," Yao said. "Just to watch him get stronger and better and just be able to do what he has to do and get back to work and regain his life, it really makes it worth it."
Deakins is thankful for Dr. Yao, and is proud of his accomplishment of finishing the race. "It makes me happy," he said. "It's joyful. It's recovery."
And Deakins hopes his story and journey to recovery helps other people realize that good health isn't something that can be taken for granted.
"I wasn't the definition of health, but I went to the doctor when I needed to and my stroke was kind of a freak event," Deakins said. "But when you're hurting, go to the doctor. When you don't feel right, go to the doctor; and that's male, female -- 20 all the way until 80."
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