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l AT LUNCH WITH
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After a stroke at age 49, a spirited photographer comes back
strong, thanks to an iron will and a special doctor friend
BY JANET GIBSON UFFINGER
PHOTO BY RACHAEL SANTILLAN
When news spread in late August that whirlwind photographer Cindy
Burnham had suffered a stroke, you could almost hear a pin drop
in the halls of The Fayetteville Observer.
The shock reverberated in homes and offices around town.
Cindy Burnham? You mean that funny blond lady who’s always
in motion? The same one who lives for photography, hosting dinner
parties ... and scuba diving? The girl swims with sharks, for God’s
sake!
No, not her.
Yes, her.
With almost 26 years as a shooter for the newspaper, Cindy Burnham
seems to know everyone and everyone seems to know her. Or at least
it looks that way to me. Cindy and I are longtime friends and colleagues.
Whenever we go out, people always flock to her side.
Cindy Burnham, left, and Dr. Carol Wadon,
in Wadon’s pool.
She’s what we call in these parts “an institution.”
Chances are she’s shot your kid’s basketball game,
or your grandma’s garden, or your favorite photo of the Market
House in the snow.
So the stroke news fell hard.
Only a “mini-stroke,” or trans ischemic attack (TIA),
the doctors say, which essentially means that blood flow had been
cut off to Burnham’s brain.
But they add it’s a miracle that Burnham is alive, given
one carotid artery was 90 percent blocked, and another was in pretty
bad shape, too. How could any oxygen possibly get to her brain?
And there was the matter of her “deep-dive weekend”
with six guys off the coast of Morehead City — four dives
as far down as 150 feet, 50 miles from shore, in rough seas, with
60 pounds on her back — plus her camera equipment.
Did you know?
Each year, about 700,000 Americans
will suffer a stroke, which is a sudden injury to the brain
caused by a blood vessel bursting or becoming blocked.
About 157,000 people in the U.S. will
die this year from a stroke, making it the third-largest killer,
right behind heart disease and cancer.
One-third of stroke victims are under
65, and even children can suffer a stroke. |
“I can’t believe she did not stroke out underwater,”
Dr. Bruce Jaufmann said, softly, shaking his head immediately after
Burnham’s carotid artery surgery.
Jaufmann assisted his partner (in medicine and life), fellow neurosurgeon
Dr. Carol Wadon, during the two-hour procedure. Wadon met Burnham
in a way like so many others — while Burnham was on assignment
(ironically photographing the doctor performing a carotid artery
surgery among other operations). That was in 1996. They are as close
as sisters. So you can imagine the pressure of operating on your
sister, knowing that there’s a chance she could have a stroke
on the table.
But the surgery was successful. And a second carotid surgery is
on hold, for now, as the doctors monitor that 50 percent blockage.
It’s been interesting to see what has emerged from this chapter
in the life of the unsinkable Cindy Burnham. Her brawny “dive
buddies” and other loved ones are now getting their carotid
arteries checked, thanks to Cindy’s urging.
We jokingly call this the “Burnham Effect.”
Our friend is also calmer these days — and a bit more philosophical.
She knows that she’s been given a second chance.
Every day is good.
THE FATEFUL DAY
Indian food is said to be beneficial for the brain — it’s
the tumeric in curry, research says, that’s been linked to
better brain health and lower rates of Alzheimer’s disease.
It says so, right there on a poster in the window of Bombay Bistro
in Fayetteville.
This is one of our favorite places — Burnham, her brain surgeon
sister, and me.
We laugh a lot around the table, and Burnham shows off the nearly
6-inch long diagonal scar, on the left side of her neck.
“That Dr. Carol does some nice handiwork,” I remark.
And more laughs.
The scene was vastly different from just a month earlier.
Burnham recalls the story during our lunch.
She was returning from a scuba-diving weekend at the beach with
her husband, Rick Allen, a videographer whose underwater film footage
is often featured on the Discovery and National Geographic channels.
Rick was driving their Suburban, when the couple’s rescued
Golden Retriever, Lucky, jumped from the back seat to front and
firmly planted himself on Cindy’s lap. The furry dog nudged
up close to the left side of Cindy’s neck.
Cindy and Rick were dumbstruck. Lucky always sat quietly in the
back seat, but on this day, he seemed agitated.
When they came to a rest stop not far from Fayetteville, Lucky
would not leave Cindy’s side. And suddenly, Cindy’s
legs felt “rubbery” on her left side and she nearly
lost her balance. Then her left eye went ... “like a crinkled
shade being pulled down.”
“I always travel with aspirin,” she says. So she popped
a couple and felt a little better.
But something still wasn’t right. Cindy knew it. Rick knew
it, too. And so did Lucky.
When they got home, Cindy collapsed on the bed, Lucky still by
her side. She asked Rick to grab one of their scuba oxygen tanks.
“I knew something was really wrong when she asked for the
oxygen,” Rick says.
He immediately paged Dr. Carol, and also called Diane Parfitt,
a family friend who worked for years as a nurse. Diane’s advice
was simple and straightforward:
“Get her to the emergency room right now!”
What are the symptoms?
An avid scuba diver who eats healthy
and has never smoked, Cindy Burnham, 49, believes that her
stroke was genetically linked. Her late father, Bernie, had
a stroke in his 60s. Cindy says she felt all of the classic
symptoms of a stroke with the exception of a headache. The
symptoms are:
- Trouble seeing in one or both eyes. (Burnham described it
“like a crinkled shade coming down.”)
- Dizziness or loss of balance.
- Numbness of the face, arms or legs, especially on one side.
- Severe headache with no known cause.
- Trouble speaking or understanding speech.
What to do …
Fayetteville neurosurgeon Carol Wadon
says one of the best defenses against stroke is to ask your
physician to check the four carotid arteries in your neck
with a stethoscope. A doctor can often determine if the blood
flow is normal in those arteries, just by listening. If not,
the doctor may order an ultrasound and, possibly, an arteriogram,
which involves injecting dye into the arteries to determine
the percentage of blockage. The doctor says it’s important
to act fast if stroke symptoms arise. She says:
- Call 911 immediately.
- Get to a hospital emergency room. There’s typically
three hours from the onset of symptoms for a doctor to determine
if he or she can administer a clot-busting drug.
Also, she advises:
- Eat smart (Wadon recommends a mostly vegetarian, organic
diet). Stay away from transfats, which are contained in margarine
and many processed and fast foods.
- Don’t smoke!
- Maintain a healthy weight.
- Exercise regularly.
- Practice deep-breathing techniques or yoga to help control
stress.
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In the E.R., Dr. Carol Wadon arrived, and noticed that her friend’s
mouth was drooping slightly on the left side. The doctor put a stethoscope
up to Cindy’s neck, and immediately knew what was wrong. She
ordered an ultrasound, which showed the blockages in two carotid
arteries.
Two days later, Burnham was prepared for major surgery, as she
tightly clasped a Beanie Baby shark, a present from her 10-year-old
niece, Christina.
Family and friends, including Cindy’s mom Liliane, brother
Steve and Observer photo editor Johnny Horne, waited for word.
A couple of hours later, Dr. Wadon breathed a sigh of relief after
removing the plaque in one of the most blocked arteries she’s
ever seen, and then sewing it back up. Her best friend was not out
of the woods yet, but it looked like she was going to be all right.
THE WARNING SIGNS
Looking back on it now, Cindy Burnham says she believes she had
a mini-stroke about a month before the one that sent her to the
E.R.
It was July 17. She was photographing “Pedro” billboards
off I-95, heading toward South of the Border, when she was struck
by feelings of weakness, anxiety and blurred vision on one side.
She chalked it up to a thyroid condition, or maybe menopause.
“If I was going to die,” Burnham says, half-joking,
“I sure didn’t want it to be shooting goofy Pedro billboards.
I’d rather go doing something cool, like shooting the war
in Afghanistan or while I’m scuba diving.”
There are no visible effects from Cindy’s stroke. The droopy
mouth was temporary. And in typical Burnham style, she returned
to work in six weeks instead of the recommended 12. She promises
to be careful to “pace” herself.
After our Indian lunch, Dr. Carol Wadon remarks that Cindy’s
experience has taught them both to relax a bit more. On that note,
she suggests taking off on this unseasonably warm afternoon to swim
in her home pool.
Burnham changes quickly into a swimsuit, jumps right in, and splashes
in the water like a kid.
Could we expect anything less from a girl who swims with the sharks?
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