St. Luke’s surgery, teams’ care help college freshman look to future after rare stroke

The last thing on Yandell Gil’s mind when he went to sleep on Sept. 19, 2023, was that his life would change when he woke up.

The next morning, he felt strange, enough so that he had to mention it to his mother, Maria.

“He’s always been healthy,” she said. “He would play sports and not run out of breath or anything.”

Still, Maria was wise enough to insist that her son immediately go to the St. Luke’s Magic Valley Medical Center’s Emergency Department on the morning of Sept. 20.

It was discovered that there was a blockage in a blood vessel in Gil’s brain – a stroke – and he was transported via Air St. Luke's to Boise.

“It was very scary,” Maria Gil said.

The vast majority of strokes affect people who are 65 or older. According a 2021 National Institute of Health study, a stroke occurs in approximately two in 100,000 kids between one month and 18 years of age.

Meanwhile, Dr. Eric Smith, a neurointerventional radiologist, was studying the images of Gil’s CT scan.

“With a stroke, they say that time is brain,” Dr. Smith said. “So, we were really on the clock. It’s a fire drill.”

Not only was Gil an unusually young stroke patient, but Dr. Smith was a relatively young doctor. Dr. Smith had recently finished his fellowship at the University of California San Francisco and joined St. Luke’s about three months prior to performing surgery on Gil.

Maria Gil has since met Dr. Smith, but knew that her son was in capable hands that day.

“The first time I met him I was surprised at how young he was,” she said. “But you kind of get vibes, and I felt like I got a good vibe from him. … I think sometimes the new doctors are more careful.”

Dr. Smith performed successful surgery on Yandell, but that wasn’t the end of his journey. Dr. Smith learned Gil’s family on his father’s side had a significant family history of heart disease.

“After we took the blood clot out – and we got all of it out – we learned about his coronary history and he was transferred to Utah,” Dr. Smith said. “That’s really where he had the majority of his recovery from the stroke, while they were also helping his heart.”

It was a lengthy recovery in Salt Lake City and back home, but Gil supported his basketball team and graduated from Murtaugh High School while continue to rehabilitate at St. Luke's Magic Valley. This fall, he traveled to Moscow to begin his first year at the University of Idaho, where he is studying virtual technology and design.

Cardiologists have told Gil heart surgery might be in his future, but for now he is focused on the present – and his studies.

“I’m on medication, and I still feel a little numbness at times … but, yeah, I’ve just tried to move on,” Gil said by phone from Moscow.

“In a matter of a year, he’s essentially resumed his normal life, and that’s pretty remarkable,” Dr. Smith said. “He’s attending college, and that’s a really cool story.”

It’s a story that several health professionals helped create.

“I always think it takes a community in a situation like this, from having someone recognize the signs of a stroke to the Air St. Luke’s that got him here to the techs, the nurses, the anesthesiologists,” Dr. Smith said. “And I wasn’t the ultimate end … .

“It was really a team collaboration.”

Gil, for one, is grateful for the efforts of that team, especially during this time of year, as Thanksgiving nears and it marks almost exactly one year since he was able to return back home.

“I don’t know where I’d be without their assistance,” Gil said. “So, a big thank you to them.”