{"id":195963,"date":"2026-05-18T21:29:07","date_gmt":"2026-05-18T21:29:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/195963\/"},"modified":"2026-05-18T21:29:07","modified_gmt":"2026-05-18T21:29:07","slug":"a-mobile-stroke-unit-helped-save-this-21-year-old-pennsylvania-womans-life-i-could-have-died","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/195963\/","title":{"rendered":"A mobile stroke unit helped save this 21-year-old Pennsylvania woman’s life: “I could have died”"},"content":{"rendered":"

Jefferson Health’s mobile stroke unit<\/a>\u00a0is saving lives by providing advanced care on location and as patients are being transported to a hospital.<\/p>\n

Seconds count<\/a>\u00a0with strokes, and now, instead of waiting to get to a hospital for treatment, it can happen on the way.<\/p>\n

Gianna Parrillo-Shennard was overcome with emotion Monday when she saw the technology in a mobile stroke unit<\/a>\u00a0that saved her life.<\/p>\n

“It really saved my life. \u2026 I could have died,” Parrillo-Shennard said. “You just don’t know your life could change in an instant.”<\/p>\n

Parrillo-Shennard was just 21 when, in October, she was overcome at work, first with a bad headache.<\/p>\n

“My speech was very, very slurred,” Parrillo-Shennard said. “It sounded like I was drunk, and I remember my face slouching to the side.”<\/p>\n

A stroke unit fully equipped with a CAT scan and medications was dispatched.<\/p>\n

“It’s like a hospital on wheels,” Upper Merion EMS Chief James Johnson said. “We can show up at your house and treat you for your stroke in your driveway.”<\/p>\n

Dr. Alvin Wang with Jefferson Health says in addition to quick imaging from the CAT scan, this ambulance is also equipped with telemedicine. A stroke neurologist can remotely evaluate the patient and direct care.<\/p>\n

“Every minute we wait to begin treatment is more brain cells dying,” Wang said. “We know the sooner that you get the diagnosis for a stroke, the better your chances are for a normal neurological outcome after the event.”<\/p>\n

Parrillo-Shennard is living proof.<\/p>\n

“I couldn’t believe it,” she said. “I thought strokes were for old people.”<\/p>\n

She’s learned strokes can happen to anyone and that it’s critical to recognize signs like trouble with speech, balance or movement.<\/p>\n

“I had two blood clots on the right side of my brain,” Parrillo-Shennard said. “By the time I got to the hospital, I was perfectly fine. My speech was back. Everything was back, so I was very thankful.”<\/p>\n

Life is back to normal for Parrillo-Shennard, who’s going to have a baby in October.<\/p>\n

In:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Jefferson Health’s mobile stroke unit\u00a0is saving lives by providing advanced care on location and as patients are being…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":195964,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[197,3806,28,30,29,19991],"class_list":["post-195963","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-pennsylvania","tag-bucks-county","tag-jefferson-health","tag-pennsylvania","tag-pennsylvania-headlines","tag-pennsylvania-news","tag-stroke"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/195963","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=195963"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/195963\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/195964"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=195963"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=195963"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=195963"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}