Two months before his wedding, Vang Her had a cough he couldn't shake. For weeks he'd hacked incessantly. How could he walk down the aisle or enjoy his honeymoon in New Zealand that way? But his doctor couldn't find anything wrong.
With rest, Vang improved. His wedding went off without a hitch. In New Zealand while cave exploring, Vang couldn't catch his breath.
Again, he rested, and the feeling passed. Not long after, Vang and his wife, Zsuzsa, flew from their home in Southern California to Philadelphia to attend Vang's sister's "white coat ceremony," the graduation-like ritual commemorating her becoming a doctor. At the baggage carousel in the Philadelphia airport, Vang felt a sharp pain in the back of his head.
His mind flashed to a pamphlet he recently received in the mail about the signs of a stroke. He ran through the list in his head. One side of his face started to droop.
He couldn't smile. "Stroke, help," he tried to say. But his words came out as gibberish.
Vang, who was 28, lowered to the floor, then passed out. Zsuzsa ran to get help. Minutes later he woke up in the back of an ambulance.
"I'm good!" he said. Still, he opted to go to the hospital. At the hospital, he lost consciousness again.
When Vang woke up the next day, he was in a different, specialized hospital. He'd had several more strokes overnight. Vang had dilated cardiomyopathy – his left ventricle was enlarged.
As the ventricle's wall stretched over the years, his heart had weakened. It appeared to b.
