On his last day as a stroke and telemetry observation nurse at JFK Medical Center, Phil Castillo was preparing to end his shift when he was struck with an unusually painful headache. The following Monday, he was set to start a training program to work in the operating room – he did not anticipate that he would end up in the operating room that night, as a patient.
“Suddenly everything changed – I went from having a headache, to everything not functioning,” Phil reflects. At the age of 30, Phil suffered a catastrophic hemorrhagic stroke. The team at JFK saved his life. After various lengthy operations and weeks of rehabilitation and recovery, Phil returned the neurosurgery operating room as a nurse and uses his experience to connect with the patients he cares for.
