Teen suffers stroke at 17, costs mount

RODNEY BAKER

Rodney Baker's grandmother remembers Rodney feeding the cats before he collapsed at his Riverside Avenue residence in Anderson on Feb. 20.

He was standing still and silent, she said.

"I said, 'Are you okay Rodney?'" his grandmother Rita Shipherd recalled. "He didn't say anything and dropped to the floor."

An ambulance was called and what paramedics thought was a seizure turned out to be a stroke.

Rodney was taken by helicopter to a hospital specializing in stroke victims in San Francisco, California Pacific Medical Center.

Other than a heart murmur when he was younger, Rodney had no prior health conditions, she said.

Several tests and a March 3 angiogram were inconclusive, said his mother, Bridget Medran. Rodney must now relearn how to walk, talk and eat, she said.

As of last week, she said Rodney was conscious and walking with assistance and could make some hand gestures. He could barely talk, and was fed through a tube as his muscles won't let him swallow, Shipherd said.

"Because of his (young) age, I'd like to see him live his life without this being a factor," Medran said of wanting to leave Rodney, who turned 18 Friday, at the hospital for more rehabilitation.

"Even if he gets to walking, it's going to take a long time for him to talk and put his words together," Shipherd said, noting there was a lot of stroke damage to the brain.

"He's a smart young man. He wants to be a computer engineer," she said

Rodney attended Anderson New Technology High School for three years before transferring to North Valley High School for his senior year, his friend Dylan Amos said. To assist the family with expenses for Rodney's rehabilitation, Shipherd can be reached at 416-0950. A Web site with updates to Rodney's condition was created by Amos at http://astrokeat17.webs.com.