What was supposed to be the start of a new chapter for Anna and Connor Lasco turned into a medical emergency on their wedding day.The Lancaster County native couple said Anna began feeling dizzy while getting ready for their Sept. 5 wedding in Rochester, New York. Her symptoms quickly worsened.“I had this loud buzzing noise in my left ear,” Anna Lasco said. “And suddenly my leg, left leg specifically, like, gave out under me.”She said her vertigo became severe and her speech was affected.“It sounded like I was intoxicated,” Anna Lasco said. “People actually asked me if I was intoxicated.”Connor Lasco said he knew something was wrong when he saw her.“When I did arrive at that venue and was called in there… Her eyes were very wide,” Connor Lasco said. “And that’s really when I kind of felt something wasn’t normal.”Couple still gets married, then heads to hospitalThe couple still got married, but Connor carried Anna to the altar because she could no longer walk reliably. After the ceremony, they went straight to the hospital.Doctors diagnosed Anna with a left vertebral artery dissection, a tear in an artery that supplies blood to the brain. She was later flown by helicopter to another hospital, where doctors said she had suffered a stroke.Doctor explains rare conditionDr. Faisal Aziz, chief of vascular surgery at Penn State Health, said a dissection is essentially a tear inside a blood vessel.He said vertebral artery dissections can be difficult to recognize because symptoms may start with dizziness, nonspecific headaches, vertigo or feeling off balance.“Usually in the beginning, they may start off as dizziness, nonspecific headaches at the back, vertigo or feeling off balance,” Aziz said. “If the symptoms get worse, they can lead to double vision, blurred vision, sometimes even loss of vision in severe cases. And they can progress to slurred speech or trouble swallowing.”Aziz said the condition is rare, affecting roughly one to two people out of every 100,000 each year, but it can happen in younger adults.He said dissections can follow obvious injuries, such as a car crash, fall or sports contact, but they can also happen after sudden or forceful neck movement — and sometimes without a clear cause.“We have seen it with roller-coaster rides or sometimes with yoga, extreme stretching of the neck during an exercise, sometimes even with severe cough or vomiting—and sometimes without any clear causes,” Aziz said.He said people should not ignore sudden symptoms such as dizziness, vertigo or eye symptoms.“It is fortunate that these neck accidents or traumas don’t happen that often,” Aziz said. “But the key thing is that when they happen and symptoms—dizziness, vertigo, eye symptoms—happen, one should not ignore that.”Read up on the Cleveland Clinic’s information on vertebral artery dissections here.Recovery and rehabilitationDoctors say many dissections heal with medical care and monitoring.“The natural history is actually very good,” Aziz said. “Most of them, they heal pretty quick, and most of the symptoms resolve on their own.”Doctors stress that dizziness or a headache alone does not necessarily mean someone has an artery dissection. But sudden or severe symptoms — especially vision changes, weakness, facial drooping, difficulty speaking or trouble walking — should be treated as an emergency. They say to call 911 rather than drive yourself to the hospital.Anna spent 18 days in the hospital and is now recovering at home. She said even simple movements now take concentration.“It takes a lot of mental strength,” Anna Lasco said. “It’s like I actually am trying to walk.”Connor Lasco said the couple is taking recovery day by day.“We’re going to get better,” Connor Lasco said. “This is the journey we’re walking together.”To support the Lascos, visit their GoFundMe page here.
