LI teen survives Friday the 13th horror stroke and brain, open-heart surgeries

Friday the 13th lived up to its notorious rep for a Long Island teen — who suffered a stroke that day in December, leading her to need brain and open-heart surgeries.

“I was on a call with my boyfriend, and he said, ‘You’re slurring your words,’ ” recalled Evelin Acosta, then 19, to The Post. “In the morning, my parents told me my smile was off.

“I didn’t think anything of it, and they didn’t, either,” Acosta said.

But the Brentwood woman, now 20, said she was having a stroke Dec. 13, and she had to have multiple critical surgeries during her five-week stay at South Shore University Hospital in Bay Shore to survive.

“When I came to the hospital … I had to get a wheelchair because I couldn’t even walk,” she recalled of the “really scary” moment.

Her stroke, a highly uncommon event in young people, was brought on by lupus, which she was diagnosed with in 2021.

Complications from the illness caused a blood clot to form and cut off circulation to the right side of her brain, according to Dr. Richard Jung, the Northwell hospital’s associate director of neuroendovascular surgery.

“It would be like if a tractor-trailer T-boned and completely blocked up all three lanes on the Southern State [Parkway],” Jung told The Post.

“She was doe-eyed and absolutely scared about what was happening to her,” he said of Ascota at the time.

Jung and his team had to snake a catheter up to her brain from the femoral artery in her leg to clear the significant blockage in a rapid, 15-minute procedure.

Things initially seemed to be successful –until the doc noticed a small amount of bleeding in her brain minutes after, which could have caused paralysis or death.

But against the odds, Acosta’s body healed itself.

“I would say this was an absolute miracle and a little bit — a lot — of fortune,” Jung said.

Not out of the woods

But although the immediate danger was over, the neurological procedure revealed an issue in Acosta’s cardiovascular system that meant she needed an open-heart operation, also uncommon for her age.

She suffered from noninfectious endocarditis of her heart’s mitral valve. It meant “the valve was not only destroyed,” but vegetation had been growing on it as well, her thoracic surgeon, Dr. John Goncalves, said of the “exceedingly rare” situation.

“Evelin’s case is one of those cases that hits home, and you remember it. As soon as I heard, ‘We have a 19-year-old,’ my heart just fell out,” the surgeon said.

Both Acosta and her doctor agreed that she took the news of needing another dramatic surgery shockingly well.

The courageous patient credits that to overwhelming family support she received throughout the lengthy ordeal.

“My brother who had cancer gave me some advice,” she tearfully recalled. “He said, ‘At first, it’s going to hurt, so be prepared for that. But slowly and surely, you’ll recover.’ “

Goncalves initially mulled over the need to swap out Acosta’s mitrial valve with cardiovascular material from a cow. Ultimately, he decided he could repair the valve’s damage with no substitution needed.

“Thank God. … A repair is far superior,” he said of the successful three-hour operation.

Like nothing ever happened

Acosta was soon up and at ’em, walking and talking with no issues in the first days that followed her open-heart surgery. Even flare-ups from her lupus became less painful.

“I was desperate to go back to work, but the doctors told me to take it easy,” said Acosta, a receptionist.

She passed the time in her hospital room watching TV, including the new season of “Squid Game,” and celebrating turning 20.

“I couldn’t wait to get out of there,” said Acosta with a smile.

The young woman, who has reconnected with her Christian faith since being released at the end of January, is now celebrating her improbable but very happy ending to her daunting medical episode.

Acosta recently enrolled in nursing school at Hunter Business School in Suffolk County.

She said that bonding with her own nurses is something she will take with her while on the floor someday herself.

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Stephen Collopy

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