Barbie Diaz is a survivor.
At 12, it was lightning.
At 18, it was a stroke.
When the lightning hit, she was standing in a puddle in Puerto Rico.
When the stroke happened, she was driving on Archer Road.
Had they gone differently, both incidents could have ended her life.
Instead, Diaz lived and is now working toward her medical degree so she can help others survive. Now 23, she’s a UF Spanish and neurobiological sciences senior and expects to graduate in a year and a half.
"I had to accept that everyone has a different timeline," she said. "I just need to focus on getting through this and being healthy."
• • •
In July 2004, a bolt of lightning struck her. After the lightning strike, she was knocked out for 20 minutes.
Her dog, an 18-month-old yellow Labrador mix named Mia, licked her awake.
She spent the next three months suffering from migraines and night sweats. Diaz said she was trying to fix her TV’s signal when she was hit.
"I heard a flash and hit the ground," she said. "I thought I was electrocuted, but it was too strong to be an electrocution."
The grass where she had been standing was scorched.
• • •
On Nov. 17, 2010, Diaz had a stroke. After the stroke, it was two months of recovery, three and a half years of chemotherapy, monthly anti-inflammatory infusions and 10 pills a day.
Diaz said she was driving back to Graham Hall from the Oaks Mall when she felt her left side went numb. At first, she brushed it off. She figured it had been from pulling all-nighters for a calculus exam.
Then she realized she couldn’t move her left arm, she said.
Diaz’s silver Jeep bumped against a median on Archer Road, causing her to hit the back of a champagne Chevrolet Silverado that was turning onto 34th Street from Archer Road, she said.
Diaz’s speech was slurred. Her left side tingled. The left side of her face dropped.
Diaz said she knew she was having a stroke, remembering the symptoms from high-school medical classes.
Diaz told paramedics she thought she was having a stroke.
As she was being transported, the UF Health Shands Comprehensive Stroke Center team waited for her as she arrived at the UF Health Hospital.
Dr. Brian Hoh, a UF endovascular neurosurgeon, and Dr. Michael Waters, a vascular neurologist and director of Shands’ Comprehensive Stroke Center, were part of the team who treated Diaz.
After some tests, Hoh said doctors found a blood clot that prevented blood from getting to her brain.
Hoh said he removed a blood clot and was able to restore blood flow.
He said if Diaz hadn’t been near UF’s stroke center, the results could have been different.
"She would either have died or ended up paralyzed," he said. "Here you have a young person with dreams of career and family."
Diaz said she remembered waking up at 4 a.m. and seeing her family. The first person she saw was her dad.
"That was probably the second time I’ve seen him cry," she said.
Her dad, Pablo Diaz, was numb with fear. He said he was afraid of losing his daughter.
"You don’t have words to explain what’s going through your mind," he said.
When she woke up, he said he thought it was a miracle.
"God operates in mysterious ways," he said.
Waters and Hoh were there for a reason, he said.
"Without them and the Lord, Barbie would not be here now," he said.
Diaz said her family was shocked she had a stroke.
"They all kinda just freaked out on me and told me I wasn’t supposed to die before any of them," she said.
Diaz’s mother, Nancy Babilonia, said she found out her daughter had a stroke when she got home from work.
After doctors removed the clot, they told Babilonia her daughter had an angel, she said.
"I am a person with a lot of faith," she said. "Whatever happened to her is because He has a reason for that."
Four days later, Diaz said she walked out of the hospital.
Diaz said she was lucky — everything bad that could have happened did, but everything good that could have happened did, too.
"They had said that if I had made it back to my dorm and fallen asleep, I would never have woken up," she said. "I like to think it was the perfect storm of bad luck."
• • •
In February 2011, she went back to the hospital to find out what caused the stroke. Eye doctors diagnosed her with Takayasu’s arteritis, a disease that causes arteries to become so inflamed they shut down and block blood flow, causing a stroke.
She said the biggest challenge for her to overcome was regaining the emotions she lost due to minor brain damage.
"I remember saying I was in love, but not feeling I was in love," she said.
It took her about two years to recover her emotions, she said.
Once she got them back, she said it was overwhelming.
In order to cope with the sudden onslaught of emotions, she said she turned to painting and crafting. She channeled her emotions through art by painting scenic areas in Gainesville, such as Paynes Prairie Preserve State Park, Devil’s Millhopper Geological State Park and Lake Alice.
In addition to balancing out her emotions, she was faced with another challenge: school.
Walking to class became an ordeal. She was slower and had a limp.
She had to take some semesters off for physical therapy.
Diaz also got double test-taking time because remembering information was harder, she said.
For now, Diaz said she wants to focus on herself in her 20s.
"I realized tomorrow wasn’t guaranteed," she said.
It used to be that she dreaded July 27 — her birthday and another year older. She dreaded the thought of gray hair and wrinkles. But that’s not the case anymore.
"I used to, like, freak out," she said. "And now I hope I get gray hair."
Contact Caitlin Ostroff at costroff@alligator.org and follow her on Twitter @ceostroff
Barbie Diaz, center, poses with her sister, Zuly, left, and her niece and goddaughter, 8-year-old Zophia.
