Young Stroke Survivor Fights To Reclaim Life, Paving Way For Others In South Orange County

MISSION VIEJO, CA — When Mission Viejo resident Dana Schwartzberg was just 27-years-old, she suffered a devastating stroke that left her partially paralyzed and stranded overseas during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The once healthy young woman suffered the stroke in 2020 while on a business trip to Israel, she told Patch. Due to COVID-19 restrictions, Dana was forced to remain in Israel for much of her recovery, during which she found herself without family and a dark place.

"At first, I was filled with confusion because I didn't understand what happened. The initial care team never told me that I had had a stroke, but I had heard them debating it due to my age," Dana told Patch. "Once I realized more of what was happening, I got really depressed and would cry at least once a day. There were moments where I would purposefully take uncalculated, unsupervised risks in areas where if I fell, it could be fatal. I wanted to be dead. I had no idea that life could continue after a stroke."

After months of treatment and physical therapy in Israel, Dana progressed from a wheelchair to a cane and was able to return to California — but the battle was far from over.

"There were a few things that helped me build myself back up. The first time I Facetimed with my nieces and nephews and I felt guilty for wanting to be dead. Additionally, my cousin, may her memory be a blessing, passed away from a brain tumor, and she had things to live for like a family of her own, a career, etc," Dana said. "We often say things like 'I’d die for them' for people we love, but for some twisted reason, I got to stay and she didn’t. So I decided that from now on instead of dying for those I love, I’m going to live for them."

While building on her determination to reclaim her own life, Dana tried numerous leg braces in order to gain back to mobility she had lost due to her stroke.

Dana's life started to change for the better when her therapist recommended she try to Bioness L300 Go, a functional electrical stimulation leg device that improves mobility.

"I can’t waste my second chance at enjoying the gift of life... the Bioness L300 Go lower leg cuff allows me to wear whatever I want and whichever shoe I want, which as a young, 31-year-old woman, is an important part of how I express myself and feel like a human woman again instead of a medical object," Dana said. "It also really helped me last longer when out and about, going on walks and exploring Disneyland. I genuinely feel that it has helped my sleepy muscles wake up a bit. It makes an inaccessible world more accessible, enjoyable, and worthy of living."

Now that Dana's reclaimed her mobility, she is now training to become a Pilates instructor and working to run a 5K, she told Patch.

Dana took an interest in Pilates after her physical therapist suggested she take classes to help further her mobility.

"Pilates really helped me, however, it's sort of gate-kept for the Barbies of the world," Dana said. "I had a negative experience with an instructor who didn't understand me disability, and so when my body couldn't do a relatively basic move to the average person, she started speaking slowly and childlike — as if I had a cognitive issue."

After walking out of that session, Dana decided to pursue a comprehensive teaching certificate in Pilates, "so that this practice of movement, which is so healing and helpful, will never be gate-kept from the very demographic that could dramatically benefit from it."