Back from the Void and Stronger Than Ever After Two Strokes at 33
- Brainz Magazine
- Jun 4
- 6 min read
Written by Matthew Mizerek, Entrepreneur, Coach, Mentor
Matt Mizerek has persevered through child abuse, living in post 9/11 NYC, and suffering two strokes to continue to help and assist others. He founded the non-profit Art Always and the streetwear company Built For Better Apparel. His mission for acceptance and unity among all is never-ending.
My name is Matt Mizerek and I had two strokes at 33 years old. Wow. It feels weird even being able to say that, given the fact I survived two massive strokes with no permanent damages, a feat my doctor said had odds of about ‘one in one quadrillion’.
This is a story containing the period of time starting on the day I suffered my first massive stroke and shortly thereafter.
Grab your Deadpool & Wolverine popcorn bucket out from the basement and strap in.
My stroke survivor story
It was a crisp autumn day in New England at the local pumpkin festival when tragedy struck.
Lame, been there, done that.
But that’s literally how it went. I think that’s how it always goes and there’s a lesson to be learned here.
After a morning of fun with the ‘pumpkin people’ at the local orchard, my family got in the car to leave.
In the driver’s seat, I turned my head to reverse out of our parking spot, and BAM! Sucked into a different dimension.
What I experienced would later be determined as my first massive stroke.
The best way I can describe this memory would be similar to a scene near the end of the movie, Interstellar, by world-renowned film director Christopher Nolan.
In that scene, the main character enters a galactic, supermassive black hole, an anomaly that is presumed to tear the very fabric of time and space.
The scene is dark and chaotic, with what is visually portrayed similar to an M.C. Escher-esque labyrinth of bookshelves. The protagonist remains floating, trying to swim through it all.
I saw this movie after I had my strokes. And, not going to lie, it gave me very horrible flashbacks. But it also provided me with an acknowledgment that other people with similar experiences must have helped create this elaborate scene.
The exact moment the stroke hit me, my mind tore violently away from my body at incomprehensible speeds into that labyrinth of black.
My ‘vision’ became completely dark with a small circle of reality, like watching a small TV in the corner of an indoor sports arena, with my seat in the nosebleeds.
‘I’, or my ‘consciousness’, floated weightless, but not even buoyant. I was scattered everywhere in all time and space, but felt calm all at the same time. I felt connected to every possible atom and molecule that my measly, personal perception could possibly comprehend.
In this place I now call ‘the void’, there was no sound from ‘the television show of reality’, nor any sound at all.
I could feel absolutely nothing.
But somehow I had a conversation, maybe with God, maybe just an inner monologue.
For months, I had the exact words memorized for so long, but I never wrote them down. I regret that because it was obviously life-changing enough for me to fully recover and continue to live life to its fullest.
But, here’s a synopsis:
‘What the f*ck are you doing, Matt?
What happened?
Don’t you remember who you were?
Before the words they put upon you.
Before the actions they harmed you with.
Before the world raped you of your natural intent.’
I returned to my body at the speed at which I was sucked out. I fell out of the car, onto the ground, and vomited profusely. It appeared I had been slumped in the driver’s seat for approximately 40 earth-time minutes, but I had no clue whether it was seconds or millennia.
I crawled on my hands and knees around the car and into the passenger seat. My wife at the time drove our family home, stopping only to get a bucket for me to vomit.
Having had a childhood upbringing that can only be described as ‘raised by wolves’, I told everyone I was fine and I’d just ‘walk it off’. I stumbled to bed and then slept for over 18 hours and into the next day.
I got up, I stumbled out the door, and managed to drive 1.3 miles to the small business I was working for at the time. In hindsight, I admit I did that stupidly and completely out of fear. But, I had a family to take care of and we desperately needed money.
Upon leaving the office two days after my first stroke, I suffered a second massive stroke. It was later determined that the second stroke was directly caused by my unhealed body from the first time around.
Another good ol’ trip around the multiverses and back down to puking on the ground.
I got driven home by my father and sought an MRI the next morning.
Upon sliding out of the MRI, the doctor rushed to my side and yelled, ‘You shouldn’t be trying to walk at all! You need to sit down right away!’
I asked, ‘Whassup doc? Something wrong.’
He replied, ‘You have two massive strokes in your brain.’
In a whirlwind of people rushing me to the hospital, I arrived at the neurological intensive care unit at Yale New Haven Hospital. I’d stay in that unit for 6 days, followed by 5 days in rehab.
I struggled. My veins had all closed due to the amount of blood they had to take and test.
But, right before they said they had to put a valve in my armpit to drain blood from the arteries near my heart, they released me from the hospital.
In my mind, my vision was clear.
For the first time in my 33 years on this planet, I felt like I could breathe.
The path I had to take was going to be hard. But, I had to do it for myself, and for my sons. I had to show them that when life knocks you down, you have to get back up and keep going.
Why? Because from my perspective, after experiencing my two strokes, there is absolutely nothing else other than to keep trying, no matter how hard it hurts. Because I’ve learned that there are no highs without the lows. And, those highs, although small at times, are worth it all.
I made my health my top priority and got off of every medication that had been prescribed to me.
It roughly took 2 years of medication withdrawal, 7 years of jogging 5 miles a day, researching human history and evolution, altering my diet back to human physical, evolutionary requirements and reexamining every influence on my own brain, to now be considered ‘in perfect health’ for my age without any prescribed medications.
The takeaway
The primary lesson I learned, one I wish to pass along to others, is that the gift of life is a blessing and it is often taken for granted.
Many people fear their deaths and live in anxiety, wondering if they are living the ‘right’ way.
The truth is, there is no ‘right’ way. And, most people die in a way they least expect.
The real fear is wishing your life away and realizing it’s gone when it’s too late.
Every choice has an outcome. Every second is a chance to change.
Although I could feel no pain in ‘the void’ and it was very comforting to be pulled out of the trivial anguishes of the real world, I feel it is a place that I can look forward to when it is my time.
However, I am in no rush to get there.
While the idea of eliminating pain versus enduring the pains of reality is an idea that I personally have flirted with many times, I am now firmly of the opinion that I want to live 100 percent as a human being and feel every high and every low.
Please, don’t take the steps I took to realize you have to put more emphasis on what really matters in life.
Take it from me, don’t wait til the end of your life to live your dreams. Live them now. Live them like your life depends on it. Because it really does.
I don’t know when death will come knocking next time, but I assure you, I will not be sitting, waiting to open the door.
I’m going to be out conquering the world. Nobody’s even going to be home.
Death is going to have to catch me.
Read more from Matthew Mizerek
Matthew Mizerek, Entrepreneur, Coach, Mentor
Matt Mizerek is a leader in mental and physical recovery, mentoring and fatherhood. He has persevered through child abuse, living in post 9/11 NYC, and suffering two strokes to continue to help and assist others. He founded the non-profit Art Always and the streetwear company Built For Better Apparel. His mission for acceptance and unity among all is never-ending.
