Kris Letang, the 26-year-old Pittsburgh Penguins player who suffered a stroke, hopes to raise awareness about how even the young and healthy are vulnerable to a blood clot in the brain.

Kris Letang of Pittsburgh Penguins suffers stroke END

On Friday, it was revealed that the defenceman suffered a stroke last week and will not be playing for at least six weeks. Tests showed Letang has had a very small hole in the wall of his heart since birth, which is called a patent foramen ovale (PFO). It’s possible the defect could have led to the stroke, according to a media statement by the team.

“I hope that by making my condition public at this time, I can help other people by encouraging them to seek medical help if they experience some of the symptoms associated with a stroke — regardless of their age or general health,” Letang said.

Everyone is born with a hole in their heart, which resembles a flap-like opening in the wall that divides the right and left atrium. It typically seals completely during infancy, but for about 25 per cent of people, that opening never completely closes.

Normally, blood enters the heart’s right side and gets pumped to the lungs, where little micro blood clots get filtered. The blood then returns to the heart’s left side and is pumped out to the body.

However, if there’s an opening in the wall, blood can flow from the right to the left side, meaning those bits of blood clots don’t get filtered by the lungs. Instead, they get pumped out into the arteries that take blood to the brain. If a clot cuts off normal blood flow to the brain it results in a stroke.

Although one in four adults has a PFO, it’s rare for it to cause a stroke, said Dr. Rick Swartz neurologist at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre, whose clinical specialty is stroke in the young.

For young adults, those under age 45, the risk of stroke is about 1 in 10,000, he said.

About 4 per cent of all strokes occur in young people and among those patients a PFO is found more often. In about 45 per cent of cases involving young stroke victims, where no other cause could be detected, experts found a PFO.

“It’s not entirely clear if the PFO is a cause or just a co-relation because when we try to fix the PFO it doesn’t change their stroke risk,” said Swartz, who’s also a spokesperson for the Heart and Stroke Foundation.

People with a PFO have no symptoms. The hole is only detected after they’ve had a stroke. An ultrasound of the heart reveals the defect, which is typically treated with blood thinners, such as Aspirin.

It’s important for people to be aware of the symptoms of stroke, said Swartz. They include a sudden onset of weakness, numbness, dizziness, double vision, loss of vision and difficulty speaking.

“These kinds of symptoms can happen in young people and so many young adults think, ‘I can’t be having a stroke, I’m young and healthy,’” said Swartz. “The messaging I give to patients in my clinic is, ‘You’ve lived in your body for years, you know what it does and doesn’t do. So when your body suddenly stops doing something that it normally does that’s a concern.’ ”

For Letang, the warning sign that something was wrong occurred when he experienced an episode of dizziness and nausea. That led to a battery of tests. His condition is now being treated with blood thinners and he is expected to continue his career, said General Manger Ray Shero in a statement.

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In the same release, Letang also expressed the same optimism about lacing up his skates once again.

“It obviously was a shock to get the news, but I’m optimistic that I can overcome this and get back on the ice.”