Marine Corps Veteran Gets a Second Chance at Life After Second Stroke

Three months ago, U.S. Marine Corps veteran Charles “Chuck” Martens suffered his second stroke.

Chuck’s daughter, Jeanele, was watching TV at her dad’s home and heard a loud noise. She rushed to the top of the stairs and was shocked to see her dad lying face down in the basement shouting for help. He was vomiting and saying he only had one arm – he had completely lost feeling on the right side of his body but was still attempting to army crawl to the steps.

Jeanele realized her dad was having a stroke and called 9-1-1. Cleveland Heights paramedics safely transferred him by ambulance to University Hospitals Cleveland Medical Center.

“Mr. Martens’ case was very memorable,” said Dana Defta, MD, endovascular neurosurgery fellow at UH Cleveland Medical Center. “He had a prior stroke at age 40, which he recovered well from. He had a blockage of one of the largest arteries in the brain and was a good candidate for a type of intervention called a thrombectomy, which is our team’s specialty.”

As a comprehensive stroke center, UH Cleveland Medical Center has a specialized team of physicians, technologists and nurses that are on-call 24/7 to drop everything and come in for these cases. The goal is always to move as quickly as possible because “time is brain”. In Chuck’s case, the team was able to open the blockage in about 15 minutes.

“Mr. Martens’ blockage was in the left middle cerebral artery vessel – one of the most critical vessels in the brain, said Kelsey Rose Duncan, MD, MBA, vascular neurologist and neuro-endovascular surgeon at UH Cleveland Medical Center. “It controls the dominant hemisphere, so it affects all movement on the right side of the body as well as language. He had a pretty severe deficit and was very weak on his right side. It was remarkable he was able to call out for help that morning as many patients with blockage in this artery can’t speak.”

Thanks to the comprehensive stroke team at UH, Cleveland Heights EMS and his daughter, Chuck was able to make another full recovery. He credits his perseverance to God and his Marine training.

Jeanele has been with her dad every step of the way through both stroke recoveries. She remembers the first one occurred when she was only 11. Following a year and a half of inpatient therapy, Chuck returned home from the first stroke in a wheelchair with right-side paralysis.

“I remember my mom and I had to teach my dad how to do everything, including tie his shoes,” she said. “I know my dad recovered so well after both of his strokes because he has so many people praying for him and because he is a Marine.”

When she was little, Jeanele couldn’t document everything. Fast forward to today and she has become her dad’s sidekick. The father-daughter duo document his recovery via TikTok videos and have a new mission in life called The Wonder of YOU Ministries. They hope to inspire other stroke survivors, support veterans and spread hope and faith to anyone facing similar challenges.

“I have this crazy desire to advocate and protect my dad, because I couldn’t when I was little and he suffered from his first stroke,” she said. “These days, I go to every appointment with him, talk to his neurologists and take notes. Everywhere that I’ve ever moved in my life, my dad has followed me and rearranged his life to live there too. We’re a unified front.”

Day by day, Jeanele sees more miracles take place while documenting her dad’s recovery. He quickly graduated from his wheelchair and preferred a walker. By day 13 following his stroke, he walked out of rehab, and by day 14 he was back to driving. He loves to craft and work with his hands and make coasters. He’s even back to landscaping, mowing the lawn and completing projects around the house.

“It should’ve been a tragedy but instead it triggered a medical miracle,” Jeanele explained. “After 27 years of physical limitations from his first stroke, my Dad has hit a literal ‘reset button.’ He has achieved milestones today that have been impossible for nearly three decades.”

Chuck hopes sharing his story helps him reach people in Northeast Ohio, across the nation and beyond: “I hope to show others that miracles are possible, and that resilience and faith can carry us through the toughest times.”