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Y O U + U S : B R A I N & S P I N E C A R E
In July 2015,
Dave Lostaunau, 53, had what
he thought was a bad and lingering headache. It
turned out to be something much more serious:
a hemorrhagic stroke.
After being gone for a few hours, Dave’s wife,
Susie, returned home. She found Dave uncon-
scious on the floor and immediately called 911.
Dave was well-known to the emergency
responders. In 2012, he retired after 29 years as a
Kern County deputy sheriff and was still a reserve
deputy. Officers and paramedics arrived within
minutes of Susie’s call. They rushed their friend
to San Joaquin Community Hospital (SJCH), a
Nationally Certified Stroke Center.
“The doctor told me it was really bad,” Susie
says.
Hemorrhagic stroke, which accounts for only
about 13 percent of stroke cases, is caused by a
blood vessel that ruptures and bleeds into the
brain. Dave was rushed into surgery.
“It was a last-ditch effort,” Susie says. “His
chance of surviving was about 25 percent that first
night.”
But Dave did survive. And although he had a
series of complications and needed two more sur-
geries, today he is recovering well—walking short
distances with a cane, for example.
‘I got the best care you can get’
“We still have a long road ahead of us with reha-
bilitation, but God put the right people in the
right place at the right time,” Susie says.
“I’m incredibly grateful,” Dave says. “At San
Joaquin, I got the best care you can get anywhere
in the world. Everyone treated me like family.”
“At San Joaquin, I got the best care you can get
anywhere in the world. Everyone treated me like
family.”
—Dave Lostaunau, stroke survivor
Retired Deputy
SURVIVES
THE ODDS