Opokua Kwapong was on a FaceTime call with her sister Adumea Sapong when Sapong noticed something wasn’t right. Kwapong had just gotten up from a nap when Sapong called her via FaceTime. Sapong immediately noticed Kwapong was slurring her words and that her face “didn’t look right.” Kwapong initially brushed off Sapong’s concerns but after witnessing more slurring of words and the dropping of a glass. Sapong insisted that Kwapong hang up and call for medical assistance right away.
Opokua Kwapong (photo courtesy BBC).
Ms. Kwapong said: “My sister looked at me and said she could see that my face didn’t look right.
“She also said that I was slurring my words, but I thought she was just fussing and I didn’t believe her.”
Mrs. Sapong said: “When I called Opokua she said that she’d not been feeling well and had been feeling tired and was also having some difficulty walking.
“I said, ‘Perhaps you need to take some aspirin.’ She tried to pick up a glass of water and wasn’t able to. Then I noticed on the FaceTime video call that her face was drooping. I told her she needed to hang up and immediately see a doctor.
“She thought I was making a fuss so I then conferenced in one of my other sisters, who is a doctor, and she could hear her speaking and could also tell that her speech was slurred. We both told her to call for help straight away.”
Ms. Kwapong hung up the call and then dialed 911.
Dialing 911 and getting help in time ended up saving Kwapong’s life. She was diagnosed with a clot in the brain and has been left paralyzed on her left side. Kwapong is crediting FaceTime as a contributing factor to saving her life. Had she not been chatting with her sister on Apple’s video service, her sister wouldn’t have noticed the facial drooping and encouraged her to call 911.
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