Maryel Andison: They gave me a prognosis of a week to 10 days. I had to take the initiative and go to Mayo, and they saved my life. Therein lies why I'm committed to Mayo.

My name is Maryel Andison. I am from Winnipeg, Manitoba in Canada. I was out one Sunday morning watering my flowers when lo and behold I had a stroke. It took a little bit of time to be able to really convince myself that this was a major event. As a matter of fact, it took me a long time. Finally went to the doctor about three days later. She got me to a neurologist, and the neurologist said to me, well, we could get a CT scan in six months, or we could get an MRI in a year. And he said if you went to Mayo Clinic, you could get it done this afternoon, and I said, that's where I'm going to go.

Within our first few minutes of our appointment with Dr. Petit, he said, you know what? We know what you have. We just need to spend some time to prove ourselves. We went through all sorts of tests — imaging tests, everything. And then finally, I arrive at this one test where they shoot a camera down your throat. Obviously, they put me out. And then the next thing I know, there is this masked man was leaning over me, and he said, we have a problem. We have called an ambulance, and you're going to have open heart surgery.

I realized I was in the best place I could possibly be. I was at Mayo Clinic. And if anybody was going to take care of me, they were going to take care of me. You really have to be your number one advocate for your own health care.