Congressman Anthony Brown Suffers Minor Stroke
BALTIMORE (WJZ) -- Maryland Congressman and former Lieutenant Governor Anthony Brown has suffered a mild stroke.
The Prince George's County congressman was hospitalized just hours after attending the funeral of Baltimore County Executive Kevin Kamenetz on Friday.
The congressman had a sudden attack of dizziness and nausea, which are not considered the more apparent symptoms of a stroke, but got immediate attention.
After paying respects to Kamenetz at his funeral on Friday, Brown said a sudden onset of dizziness and nausea sent him to the hospital that evening, and it was determined he suffered a mild stroke.
[REPORTER: What are we talking about happening in the brain when you have a stroke?]
"Ischemic strokes are when there's a blood clot blocking off blood flow to the brain. It's essentially like a clogged pipe. The blood can't get past that blood clot, so the part of your brain which is depending on that blood starts to die," said Dr Hsiong Chen, neurologist at Medstar Franklin Square.
Dr. Chen says another type of stroke is like a pipe bursting.
In either case, dizziness and nausea - which were Congressman Brown's symptoms - are not obvious indicators of stroke.
"That's very tricky, because there's a lot of things that cause dizziness and nausea - stroke being one of them - but you can also have inner ear imbalance, which can cause those types of symptoms," Dr. Chen added.
The key is getting early treatment, as that's when it's easiest for a full recovery to be possible.
A spokesman tells us the congressman suffered no deficits from the stroke, and is active and in good spirits at his home working with his staff.
No definite date has been set for Brown's return to Capitol Hill.
Congressman Crown is the second Maryland representative to experience health problems. Congressman Elijah Cummings had heart surgery, which resulted in complications from an infection.
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