Positivity: Health Fair Saved Her Life

Julie Fuzell went to get information for someone else, and found out that she was the one who needed help:

08/17/06
Clayton County resident Julie Fuzell went to a health fair last August hoping to get some information about Parkinson’s disease for her father-in-law, who was diagnosed with the condition.

Instead, she got help that might have saved her own life.

A routine blood pressure check revealed trouble. She says the top number was 229, nearly twice the normal blood pressure level. Fuzell was hospitalized later that day.

“She could have very well gone home and had a seizure” if she didn’t go to the health fair, said her husband, Kevin. “I don’t think it could have been a good result.”

“That’s why this health fair is so important to the community,” said U.S. Rep. David Scott (D-Ga.), who organized last year’s health fair and is having his second this Saturday.

Scott’s goals include raising HIV awareness, particularly among black women, and helping people have access to affordable health care. Scott said he got the idea to organize a health fair from his wife, Alfredia, who was diagnosed with breast cancer a few years ago.

….. After leaving the health fair, Fuzell, 39, got her blood pressure checked at a local Fire Department stationhouse. It was still high. She went to the hospital, where doctors induced the birth of Fuzell’s daughter, Sidney.

Fuzell went through several months of physical therapy, learning how to walk and feed herself. She learned she had a potentially fatal condition called HELLP (Hemolysis Elevated Liver enzymes and Low Platelets). HELLP syndrome is caused by a contraction of blood vessels in the liver. The condition is rising among pregnant women.

“You just shouldn’t take [your health] for granted,” she said. “Because if we hadn’t, it would have turned out so differently.”