In 2018, Kristin Barroga was enjoying life as any 22-year-old does. She had great friends, a loving family and felt fulfilled by her job at a health foods bar where she worked while completing her associate’s degree. She found joy in maintaining her physical and mental fitness, happily devoting much of her free time to training at the gym. Life was moving along as usual…until one morning when she woke with a pounding headache. No sooner had the headache started than her vision blurred and her face started to droop. “I had always seen and heard emergency vehicles on the road, but not once did I think an ambulance would one day come for me,” Kristin said. She was rushed to the emergency room where she and her family were devastated to learn the results of her CT scan: she had suffered a cerebellar stroke.
An intense and emotional multi-week stay at Straub Benioff Medical Center followed. Kristin recalled her bleak diagnosis, “The doctors were unsure if I would survive. If I did, they warned I would be severely disabled…vertigo, hearing and balance loss, lack of control on my left side, the inability to swallow and the list went on.” The severity of her situation was amplified when she learned she required a feeding tube. “Staring down at the large plastic ‘noodle’ protruding from my stomach, my self-esteem and sense of identity unraveled. Growing up in Hawaii, food is so much more than a meal, it is the heart of our culture. Now, instead of sharing mealtime moments of connection with family and friends, I found myself on the sidelines.”
Though the odds were stacked against her, Kristin was determined to fight for herself, for the woman who loved big meals with her family and long training sessions in the gym. When she was stable enough to transfer to REHAB Hospital of the Pacific (REHAB), she held tight to the person she was before her stroke and the future she wanted to have. Gradually, she began to see progress. “The staff at REHAB were so welcoming,” Kristin shared. “My biggest concern was feeling normal again, but the therapy was surprisingly fun and it helped that I felt right at home being back in a gym setting.” During Kristin’s time at REHAB, she applied herself to a full range of therapies, from physical and occupational to speech and dysphasia (swallowing) therapy. With REHAB’s guidance, time and dedication, she was eventually able to take her first unassisted steps, and even her first delicious bites of solid food.
When her discharge day finally came, Kristin left REHAB with even more than the skills and confidence to continue her rehabilitation progress; she left with a newfound purpose.
“During my recovery at REHAB, I was inspired by my therapists and became deeply interested in the field of Speech-Language Pathology. It was at REHAB that I realized my unique journey as a stroke survivor could help future patients and encourage them to achieve their rehabilitation goals just as I had.”
In 2024 Kristin returned to REHAB, this time wearing a Team REHAB shirt. After obtaining her bachelor’s degree in psychology at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa and completing the Jon A. Burns School of Medicine Speech Pathology and Audiology Prerequisite Program, it felt right to be in the place where it all began to conduct her clinical shadowing. In the fall of 2025, Kristin is set to begin her master’s degree with the University of Washington's Medical Speech-Language Pathology Program. “As a fully recovered stroke survivor, I now embrace this identity as part of my mission and I can’t wait to help others with communication and swallowing disorders just as I was helped,” Kristin said. “This is my life’s calling.”
Check out our most recent commercial, Simple Pleasures, which follows Kristin’s journey to her first bites of solid food after her stroke.