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Sydney Finnell frowns at what Erin
Cekovich is cradling in her gloved hands.

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00:00:05,705 --> 00:00:09,209
It looks like a mammoth head
of cauliflower, but gray,

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split down the center of its oval
shape and dangling tubes.

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“Haveyou ever seen a
 human brain before?” asks

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Cekovich, manager of the stroke program
at Penn State Health Milton S.

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Hershey Medical Center.

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The little girl stares.

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She crosses her arms and comes no closer.

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“Yeah,” she says.

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“You have?” Cekovich says, smiling.

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“Where?” “Right here,” Finnell says.

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Cekovich laughs.

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Not everyone gathered at Paxtonia
Elementary School in Harrisburg

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00:00:37,637 --> 00:00:41,641
for Science Night is as skeptical about
the Penn State Health brain as Finnell.

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In fact, for dozens of the local residents
who gather for one evening every year

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to watch representatives from academia

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and local companies perform
scientific experiments at the school,

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crowding in close and gawking at a naked
human mind is tradition.

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“It’s always my first stop,”
one woman tells Cekovich,

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who is there
with other members of Milton S.

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Hershey Medical Center’s stroke team.

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But while the novelty of getting up close
to the mysterious organ

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responsible for your dreams, fears
and chocolate cravings is tantalizing,

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the stroke team isn’t there for thrills.

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The brain was a gift to the health system
by an anonymous donor

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for education purposes.

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And Cekovich
and her partners hope the lessons

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they teach will actually help save lives.

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“Does anybody know what happens
when you have a stroke?”

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Cekovich
asks a pack of enraptured children.

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She flips the brain over

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to where the brain stem, severed
from the spinal cord, dangles.

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Sometimes a blood vessel bursts,
she explains.

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That’s called a hemorrhagic stroke.

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Sometimes a blockage forms
within an artery.

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That’s an ischemic stroke.

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Either way, the blood supply
to the big computer inside

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your head becomes disrupted, and that can
quickly lead to permanent damage.

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Or worse ― death.

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And it can happen in a matter of seconds.

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Cekovich and her partners are visiting
Science Night for the same reason

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they drop by food pantries and other local
gatherings ― to try to stop strokes

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from taking lives.
Someone has to make the call

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Every 40 seconds, someone in the U.S.

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suffers a stroke, according to the U.S.

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Centers
for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

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Every three minutes and 14 seconds,
someone dies from one.

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Early detection can make all the difference,

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and that’s
the point of events like Science

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Night and others
the stroke team regularly attends.

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In Penn State Health’s 2021 Community
Health Needs Assessment survey,

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heart disease and stroke ranked fifth
among health conditions

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affecting survey respondents.

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People most likely to suffer strokes
struggle with high blood pressure, high

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cholesterol, smoking, obesity
and diabetes, according to the CDC.

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A stroke can kill in a moment
and strike swiftly.

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But two things can prevent it.

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One is a qualified health care team.

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Cesar Velasco says patients can find just that

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where he works as coordinator
of the stroke program at Milton S.

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Hershey Medical Center.

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The medical center’s neurology
and neurosurgery teams are available 24/7

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to provide comprehensive stroke center
interventions.

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This includes intravenous medication
that dissolves clots and endovascular

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thrombectomy, a surgical procedure

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to remove a clot causing
disruption of blood flow to the brain.

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These treatments are time sensitive
and can only be delivered

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to patients who meet acute
ischemic stroke treatment criteria.

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All of it starts, Velasco says,
with a 911 phone call.

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And that’s
where the second essential ingredient

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for preventing a fatal
or damaging stroke comes into play –

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someone nearby
who knows the warning signs.

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BE FAST.

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“Who knows what

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BE FAST stands for?”
Cekovich asks a scrum of children

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at Paxtonia Elementary
who have gathered to say hi to the brain.

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A boy in the crowd furrows
his brow and begins.

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“B is for balance,” he says.

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“Good,” Cekovich says.

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Someone suffering
a stroke may be unsteady on their feet.

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“E is for eye.”

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A stroke could cause someone
to lose their vision in one or both eyes.

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“F is face,” the boy continues.

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A telltale sign can be a facial droop
or an uneven smile.

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00:04:28,101 --> 00:04:33,573
“A is arms.” One arm might hang lower
than the other in someone having a stroke.

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“S is for speech.”
Someone suffering a stroke

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00:04:37,277 --> 00:04:41,080
might slur their words, have trouble
speaking or seem confused.

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00:04:41,447 --> 00:04:45,785
“And T is … um
…” The boy searches for it.

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00:04:46,052 --> 00:04:49,489
Cekovich starts to give him the answer,
but before she can say it,

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he blurts out the final word.

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“TIME,” he says.

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00:04:53,626 --> 00:04:55,228
“Right,” Cekovich nods.

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“Time to call 911.

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Fantastic!”
Her audience has seen the acronym

95
00:05:01,100 --> 00:05:04,237
many times ― at school,
on billboards and posters ―

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00:05:04,404 --> 00:05:07,740
but it’s the most essential part
of the stroke team’s presentation.

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00:05:08,041 --> 00:05:11,611
In March, they visited with hockey fans
at the Hershey Bears game.

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This spring, they’re attending farmers
markets and local food banks

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00:05:15,214 --> 00:05:19,886
because “We want to integrate ourselves
into communities that might not have

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equitable access to not only health care
but also food,” Velasco said,

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00:05:24,624 --> 00:05:28,328
since what you eat can contribute
to your likelihood of having a stroke.

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00:05:28,728 --> 00:05:32,832
Stroke team members do live interviews
on TV and perform tests

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00:05:32,832 --> 00:05:34,434
among samples of participants

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00:05:34,434 --> 00:05:38,237
at some events to determine
whether their message is getting through.

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The idea
is that just about anyone can make that

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911 call – teachers, plumbers, CEOs
or professional baseball players.

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00:05:47,480 --> 00:05:48,915
And children.

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00:05:48,915 --> 00:05:52,418
Among the literature and brochures
about strokes and what can be done

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to protect against them is a coloring book
for kids all about how they can help.

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‘People don’t know’

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The brain they bring to events “is
a good way of illustrating

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that this is an organ
you don’t regularly see,” Velasco said.

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“We take for granted
the ideas of brain health and the risk

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for stroke.” For some at Science Night,
the brain struck a personal chord.

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00:06:16,008 --> 00:06:18,811
A woman watched Cekovich’s
description of a stroke

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00:06:18,811 --> 00:06:21,647
and explained to her child
that her grandfather

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who they just visited in
the hospital was suffering from a stroke.

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David Klinger, a 64-year-old
from Harrisburg, has had three strokes.

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Cekovich showed him on the underside
of the brain what exactly had happened.

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He’d never been up close to the organ
that had caused him so much trouble.

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“It’s weird,” he said.

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The first stroke came in 2016

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00:06:43,403 --> 00:06:46,973
when he was driving an 18-wheel tractor
trailer on Interstate 78.

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He lost feeling in one of his feet.

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His most recent stroke was five weeks ago.

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He wasn’t going to go to the hospital
until his wife recognized the signs

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and made him go in.

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He’s thankful that she did.

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“People don’t know,” he said.

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00:07:01,587 --> 00:07:04,490
“They told me
I wouldn’t walk after the first time.”