Stroke Patient Saved by 2nd Opinion

Michole Pignato, a teacher, credits St. Luke’s physicians with saving her life when an artery in her brain was on the brink of rupture.

Pignato, 43, of Northampton, was out to dinner with her teenage children when, after feeling a snap in the back of her neck, the room seemed to spin. She couldn’t stand or walk without assistance. She went to a hospital (not St. Luke’s) and for more than a month, she struggled with recurring symptoms.

That’s when her friend Dr. Francis Burt, who happens to be a doctor at St. Luke’s, urged her to seek a second opinion at St. Luke’s – specifically, from neurologist Dr. Daniel Ackerman, the Network’s Interim Chief of Neurology.

Dr. Ackerman saw her very quickly, and he immediately identified an arterial dissection, or tear. He then referred her to St. Luke’s neurosurgeon Dr. Martin Oselkin. Upon review of her scan, Dr. Oselkin called Pignato the same day and urgently instructed her to check in for surgery. He performed the procedure the following day, placing two stents to repair a pseudoaneurysm, a potentially life-threatening condition involving blood collection inside of a vessel wall that can lead to rupture.

Her operation was on Nov. 15, 2023. While she did make a full recovery, her strokes left her with challenges such as learning how to read again and regaining ability to use her left hand. Miraculously, she was back in the classroom just a few weeks later, shortly after Thanksgiving.

This month, the American Heart and Stroke associations nominated Pignato to participate in the Go Red for Women movement's 2025 Woman of Impact fundraising competition. For more information, go to http://www2.heart.org/goto/donatetomichole.

“This experience made me realize that strokes—and heart disease—don’t discriminate,” she says on her fundraising webpage. “They don’t care if you’re fit, active, or take care of yourself. They can hit anyone, at any time.” She wants to use her experience as a platform to advocate for women, especially young moms, to make time to take care of themselves mentally and physically.