Wells mayor David Braun and his wife, Chelsea, are very happy he is still alive after suffering a stroke at the age of 35.

I don’t believe in luck, I believe in God.

Those are the words written on a shirt proudly worn by stroke survivor David Braun.

Braun was receiving medical treatment in Albert Lea before being transported to Rochester St. Mary’s Hospital.

“Things were looking pretty grave,” Braun’s wife, Chelsea, recalls.

“It really hit me then just how serious things were,” Braun says.

Now, looking back, he realizes there were warning signs something was going on.

“The days leading up to my stroke I started having severe headaches,” he comments. “I also smelled a burning smell like from an electric burn.”

It was the week of March 28 when the symptoms became noticeable.

“By March 30 I thought I maybe had COVID again,” he mentions. “I had dealt with COVID a year earlier and thought I maybe got it again.”

Braun, a native of Wells, is a master electrician who works for the Minnesota Department of Transportation’s electrical services.

He recalls he had a splitting headache which was so bad he almost could not load his work van.

“I was in Mankato and considered having Chelsea, come and get me,” Braun states.

Braun, who just turned 36 years old on April 13, and Chelsea have been married just over a year.

“I got home and thought I would take a shower to see if that would help,” he shares. “I could not get my pants up. I actually lost balance and fell before I finally was able to pull them up. But, I could not grasp a Kleenex with my left hand. I went and laid down for awhile.”

Meanwhile, Chelsea had been making supper and informed her husband it was ready to eat.

“I got up and ate supper just fine,” Braun notes.

Braun says he went to bed and slept for four hours. When he woke up he had severe shaking and his teeth were chattering like never before.

“I tried getting up out of bed and I fell and hit my face on the night stand,” he tells. “I struggled to get up off of the floor. I could not communicate. It was like I had marbles in my mouth.”

Thankfully, Chelsea had woken up and saw her husband was bleeding.

“She noticed the left side of my face was droopy and she called 911,” Braun recalls. “Her action helped save me.”

It is part of the reason Braun is speaking out about his experience – so others might learn how to look for signs of stroke.

“May is stroke awareness month,” Braun shares. “One of the things which is preached about strokes is Act F.A.S.T.”

According to the Center for Disease Control, the F in the acronym has to do with face drooping in a person experiencing a stroke. Ask the person to smile and see if one side drops.

A is for arm weakness. Ask the person to raise both arms. Does one arm drift downward?

S is for speech difficulty. Ask the person to repeat a simple sentence and see if they slur the words.

The T stands for time to call 911 if a person is showing any of the above signs.

After Chelsea made the call, the Wells Ambulance was soon at Braun’s house.

“One of the first persons I saw was Tiffany (Cumming) from City Hall,” Braun, who is the mayor of Wells, remembers. “She saw my symptoms and called for stroke protocol.”

Meanwhile, Braun remained conscious.

“I was awake and I heard what they were saying,” he comments. “I am thinking I can’t be having a stroke – I’m too young.”

Members of the ambulance squad wanted to put him on a backboard but Braun thought he could do it himself.

“I was not able to do it,” he shares. “My left side would not work.”

The Fire and Rescue squad had to come to lift him out of his house.

Braun continued to remain awake and recounts the events as they unfolded.

“They put me on oxygen right away and we headed to Mayo in Albert Lea. When we got there, I had a CT scan,” he remembers. “The doctor said I had a moderate stroke. It was 14 on the scale. A measurement of 15 is severe.”

A call went out for an air flight to transport him to St. Mary’s Hospital in Rochester, but the weather was too bad and he had to be transported to Rochester by an ambulance.

“I never prayed so hard to have my life back,” Braun states.

Chelsea Braun remembers speaking to her husband as he was leaving to go in the ambulance.

“I told him, ‘I love you and you have one job. Don’t die on me,'” she says.

Braun was transported to St. Mary’s the morning of March 31 and the neuro-stroke team took over.

“They placed two stints in my head but they could not remove all of the clot so they bored through the clot to open it up,” Braun explains. “I was awake the whole time and could feel something going on in my head. I can still point out where that spot is.”

He also learned the cause for his clot.

“I had bleeding occurring on the brain and it clotted back into the artery and closed it off,” he notes. “I never felt critical. I could think. I could remember. But, all of the charts called me critical.”

Once the procedure of putting the stints in was complete he was put in an ICU (Intensive Care Unit) where the nurses would come in every 10 minutes to test him.

“They asked, ‘Can you feel this? Can you touch your nose? Can you touch the nurse’s finger?'” he recalls.

Amazingly, his speech came back immediately.

“But, my arm movement did not come back right away and it was another reminder of just how serious things were,” Braun adds. “Too much thinking would wear me out.”

He was moved from the ICU and placed in a normal recovery room on April 1, where he was able to get a decent night’s sleep.

“I had a lot of cognitive tests and by the end of the day (April 1), everything was working fine,” Braun comments.

He was originally told it would be six months before he would be back at work and he would have to endure two to three months of physical therapy.

But, on April 2, the Wells resident was able to walk 900 feet and climb two flights of stairs.

“My physical therapist said I did not need to be here and she was going to go talk to someone,” he remarks.

Braun was released later that day and walked out of the hospital on his own with no dietary or driving restrictions.

However, he was told to stay away from work for two weeks and not to lift over five pounds. He is also on blood thinners to help in the removal of the rest of the clot. These restrictions will be on for 90 days from the day of the incident.

He will have a CT scan at the 90-day mark and another one after one year.

“People cannot believe this happened because of my age,” he notes. “But, a stroke can happen at any age.”

It took him two weeks before he could type well with his left hand but he has now returned back to work and things are going fine.

“The outpouring of support I have received has been incredible. My friends are shocked at how well I am doing,” Braun comments. “I am even more shocked.”

He shares he is making some changes in his life and is trying to eat better because he does not want to be lying in a hospital again.

Braun expresses his thanks for all who helped him during the critical time when the stroke occurred, including Chelsea, the EMTs, the police and fire departments, the people from Mayo, his neighbors with their messages of hope and prayer and the miracle from God.

“Others have asked why me?” he states. “I know why, because I knew I could handle it. Now, I want to be an example that you can survive and thrive after a stroke.”

For more information on how to spot signs of a stroke and steps to take to prevent a stroke, visit the Center for Disease Control website and type “stroke” in the search bar.