Jefferson's Mobile Stroke Unit Helped Save a 21-year-old Woman's Life: "I Could Have Died"

Last October, Gianna Parrillo-Shennard, then 21 years old, was at work dealing with what she thought was just a bad headache before symptoms of a stroke began.

"My speech was very, very slurred," Parrillo-Shennard said recently to CBS News Philadelphia. "It sounded like I was drunk, and I remember my face slouching to the side."

When stroke symptoms strike, every second counts. In those critical moments, Jefferson Health's Mobile Stroke Unit, in partnership with Upper Merion Township Fire & EMS, can meet that urgency. Each of Jefferson's Mobile Stroke Units provides the same initial treatment capabilities that acute stroke patients would receive in the emergency department.

"It's like a hospital on wheels," Upper Merion EMS Chief James Johnson told CBS News Philadelphia. "We can show up at your house and treat you for your stroke in your driveway."

For Parrillo-Shennard, the crew and technology in the Mobile Stroke Unit saved her life. 

"It really saved my life. … I could have died," Parrillo-Shennard said. "You just don't know your life could change in an instant."