Woman, 37, in West Virginia suffers a stroke triggered by amusement park ride at county fair – one of just 20 cases ever worldwide

A 37-year-old woman suffered a stroke triggered by a fast-spinning ride at a county fair.

The West Virginian woman is one of just 20 recorded cases of a stroke brought on by an amusement park ride worldwide.

Midway through the ride, which swung people rapidly around in circles, the woman developed a headache and lost control over the muscles on the right side of her body.

Once off the ride, she could not walk properly.

Her husband immediately rushed her to the emergency department, where doctors diagnosed her with vertigo — a condition where issues with the inner ear or part of the brain cause dizziness.

She was sent home with anti-nausea drugs, but her symptoms did not ease, and she was taken back to hospital.

Doctors discovered her heart and breathing rate had skyrocketed. Her blood pressure had also soared, and she already had a history of high blood pressure.

A CT scan of her brain revealed an area of dead tissue close to an artery that supplies the right side of the brain, which controls muscle movements and balance, suggesting she had had a stroke.

Stroke is the fifth leading cause of death in the US and occurs when blood flow to the brain is stopped, which deprives it of oxygen and causes cells to die.

The National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute lists the most serious risk factors as high blood pressure, diabetes, heart and blood vessel diseases, high cholesterol, smoking, brain aneurysms, and conditions that cause inflammation.

In this case, the woman had a 10-year history of smoking a pack of cigarettes every day, plus untreated high blood pressure.

Doctors are not sure exactly what caused her stroke, but think it could have been caused by an embolism, which is an artery blocked by a blood clot which moves from another part of the body.

In the few previous cases of strokes following fairground rides, the violent head movements during the rides are thought to have caused a tear in the carotid artery which carries blood to the head, brain and face.

The woman was prescribed medication to control her post-stroke headache, and doctors followed up with physical therapy appointments.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), someone in the US has a stroke every 40 seconds. That is almost 800,000 people a year. Nearly one in four have had a stroke before. It’s also the fifth leading cause of death in the US.

Though the chance of having a stroke doubles every 10 years after reaching age 55, as many as one in seven people aged 15 to 49 will suffer the event.

The case was published in the journal Cureus.