At 22, Sarah Harrell had a stroke, forcing her to rebuild everything

Kathy Wolfenbarger brushes Sarah's hair in their home in West Maynardville, Tenn.

By Casey Phillips September 25, 2016 1 min read

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Life interrupted, life regained: At 22, Sarah Harrell had a stroke, forcing her to rebuild everything

Sarah holds her toothbrush in her teeth and uses her left hand to add toothpaste during her morning routine at home. With a right hand that's not as mobile as it was, Sarah says it's lucky she was left-handed before the stroke.

Sarah puts on makeup in her bedroom; photos of friends hang on the wall. After the stroke, Sarah began taking classes in makeup and now has a makeup-applying business: Brush Strokes.

Sarah uses her teeth to tie her shoe. Her limited mobility has forced her to relearn how to do tasks that other people take for granted.

Sarah looks for her dog, Jackson, before leaving the house for an occupational therapy appointment in Knoxville.

Occupational therapist Sarah Gimbel helps Sarah Harrell perform exercises designed to restore mobility in her right side, which was affected by the stroke she had in 2013 at age 22. Sarah has two weekly appointments at Patricia Neil Rehabilitation Center in Knoxville, and the therapy has helped restore much of her mobility, language and memory.

Sarah waits on a therapy table for her occupational therapist to return with a new exercise at Patricia Neil Rehabilitation Center in Knoxville. Constant therapy since the stroke has helped restore much of her mobility, language and memory.

Since her stroke, Sarah wears a brace on her right ankle that helps her walk. When not at home, she also carries a cane to help her with stability.

During a visit to Chattanooga, Sarah shops at Victoria's Secret with one of the few friends who have kept in touch with her since the stroke. Some of her friends have not kept in contact and her mother, Kathy Wolfenbarger, says she understands.

To raise stroke awareness, Sarah, right, gets ready to throw out the first pitch at a Chattanooga Lookouts game. With her is her best friend Megan Collyer, her former roommate who was with Sarah while she was having a stroke.

Sarah waves to a friend while watching a Lookouts baseball game during a visit to Chattanooga.

Dr. Robert Chironna performs a nerve-block procedure on Sarah's left leg to help her walk better.

Sarah sits in the passenger's seat of her mother's SUV as they ride back home from a doctor's visit in Knoxville. Sarah hopes to be able to drive herself soon because it would mean a return of her independence and the ability to live on her own again.

Sarah's stepfather, Ronnie, talks with her after she arrives home from a doctor's appointment; her mother, Kathy, reads nearby. Ronnie frequently has worked with Sarah on exercises to help her mobility.

I remember telling him, Dustin, I can't lose her. She's only 22.

As she walked into the kitchen of her Red Bank apartment, all Sarah Harrell had on her mind was quenching the thirst that had been on a slow build during a Netflix marathon.

It was Dec. 6, 2013, a Friday.

A vivacious 22-year-old splitting her time between classes at Chattanooga State Community College and working for Southeastrans, a transportation management company, Sarah had received a raise earlier that day and had called her mother, brimming over with excitement. At the close of a week of end-of-semester exams, however, she couldn’t muster the energy to go out and celebrate, so she and her roommate, Megan Collyer, grabbed takeout and were binge-watching episodes of “Glee.”

As Sarah made her way into the kitchen, however, she suddenly felt numb on her right side. Initially, she thought she’d just been sitting awkwardly on the couch, but the headache that followed was so intense she vomited.