Carmella Cuva was a cheetah. In 2005 and again in 2010, she was crowned the fastest Monterey County woman to complete the Big Sur International Marathon. By January 2022, she had run nearly 40 marathons. Half were Big Sur, and she ran three of those just six days after crossing the finish line of the Boston Marathon.
The then-51-year-old Monterey resident and former nurse at Montage Health’s Community Hospital of the Monterey Peninsula was near the end of a 13-mile run through Fort Ord when she sensed she wasn’t feeling right. She couldn’t explain it, except that her body felt off. Assuming she was depleted, her running companion gave her a black bean brownie. She threw up.
“I didn’t respond well,” she says.
Today, Community Hospital could have removed Cuva’s clots with a procedure called thrombectomy, thanks to Montage Health’s new neurosurgery program. But in 2022, her only option was to be transferred to the Bay Area.
She was intubated and flown via helicopter to Stanford Medical Center to remove the blood clot from her brain. After five days at Stanford, Cuva returned to Community Hospital where she spent three weeks in the hospital’s inpatient rehabilitation unit.
The road to recovery
. . . she worked really, really hard to get her life back.
— Michael Davis, DO, inpatient rehabilitation unit medical director, Montage Health
As a result of her stroke, the champion distance runner lost her ability to speak, swallow, and walk. She now faced a new kind of marathon — with seemingly unending intensive therapy to regain basic skills.
“I went through hours of daily exercises to help me relearn how to move,” Cuva says. “I remember being given the challenge to pull tissues, one by one, out of a Kleenex box, and throw them onto the ground to improve the use of my arm.”
She was determined to regain her life. And to run again.
“When she came back from Stanford, she was profoundly disabled,” says Michael Davis, DO, medical director of the inpatient rehabilitation unit. “She couldn’t hold her head up, her eyes didn’t line up, and she couldn’t sit up, walk, or eat. But she worked really, really hard to get her life back.”
Cuva arrived at the inpatient rehabilitation unit in January 2022, and that November, she completed the Monterey Bay Half Marathon. Five months later, Davis joined her in running the Big Sur International Marathon.
“Having Carmella as a patient, then a year later running a marathon with her, is pretty special,” Davis says. “Around mile 17, I couldn’t keep up with her. I told her to go on ahead.”
Since her stroke, Cuva has completed five full marathons and three half marathons. Each finish line has more meaning, she says, and every mile is a reminder to keep moving forward, even when life tries to hold her back.
Know the signs of stroke
Reduce your stroke risk
During a stroke, blood flow to the brain is restricted, causing brain cells to die rapidly. Getting care within the first few hours can mean the difference between full recovery and a life with significant disabilities.
How to prevent a stroke
Practice healthy nutrition: A healthy diet means healthier arteries. Poor nutrition can lead to high cholesterol, high blood pressure, and diabetes, which can triple your stroke risk. Eat fruits and vegetables, lean protein, nuts, and seeds.
Reduce alcohol intake and don’t smoke or vape: Smoking and alcohol both raise blood pressure, and high blood pressure is the leading cause of stroke.
Establish a relationship with a primary care doctor: Your primary care provider knows your medical history and can help you chart your medical future, preventing small issues from growing into larger ones.
