Tiffany Rubenkoenig, 42, had several summer festivities marked on her 2022 calendar: a hair appointment to get highlights, a family trip to California and a Garth Brooks concert at AT&T Stadium in Arlington.
Guitar chords, twangy notes from a harmonica and the rhythmic beats of a drum poured out of the car speakers as Rubenkoenig, her husband and their friends headed to the concert on July 30. On the way, Tiffany started to feel lightheaded and dizzy. Her husband, Ryan, noticed she started slumping in her seat, slurring her words and saw some drooping in her face — all the telltale signs of a stroke.
Instead of going to see Garth Brooks that night, Rubenkoenig ended up at Texas Health Arlington Memorial Hospital.
Her summer plans were cut short after having a life-threatening stroke and experiencing cardiac arrest — twice. During her journey to recovery, Rubenkoenig created Sprinkling Love, a nonprofit organization made to create a support system for other stroke or brain injury survivors.
How to get involved with Sprinkling Love
- Sign up for the community email at the bottom of the homepage.
- List of books, therapy options and support groups are found on the resources page.
- Donations to the organization will go to purchasing cookies and small gifts for survivors, according to its donation page.
- Contact Tiffany Rubenkoenig here with questions, suggestions or ways to get involved.
Rubenkoenig, motivated by her Christian faith, started Sprinkling Love as a way to pay forward all the support she received from family and friends. Through her nonprofit, Rubenkoenig delivers flowers and homemade cookies with Bible verses to other stroke or brain injury survivors. Sprinkling Love also has a blog where the Fort Worth resident documents her pathway to healing and stories about people she has met along the way.
“Having a stroke or brain injury is so hard, but I think it’s important to always be showing people that someone cares, that God cares and that people care,” Rubenkoenig said.
Strokes are the fifth-leading cause of death for women, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In the U.S., 1 in 5 women between the ages of 55 and 75 will have a stroke.
However, experiencing cardiac arrest subsequent to a stroke like Rubenkoenig did is rare, said Dr. Matthew Fiesta, an interventional neuroradiologist with Texas Health Fort Worth. Rubenkoenig was transported by helicopter to Texas Health Harris Methodist Hospital in Fort Worth, where she was under Fiesta’s care.
Fiesta, who also serves as co-medical director of the hospital’s stroke program, discovered — through different medical scans — that rather than the typical two arteries in the back of the head that supply blood and oxygen to the brain, Rubenkoenig had only one.
“Unfortunately, Mrs. Rubenkoenig somehow injured or dissected her one and only artery,” Fiesta said. “It caused major blockage and led to her massive stroke.”
Rubenkoenig underwent medical treatment to help heal and prevent future blockages in her artery. After several weeks, Rubenkoenig returned home to her family. She had trouble speaking, moving on her own and seeing.
“Of course, you get a lot of bad news and prognosis when you hear what your injury is,” Fiesta said. “I was telling them (Rubenkoenig’s family) that she looked worse clinically than her MRI actually looked, but I’ve seen people recover from these injuries before. So I think giving them the help they needed was really helpful, as well as it also makes the patient want to fight more, too.”
Rubenkoenig then began the monthslong process of rebuilding her motor and cognitive skills through rehab. She receives vision therapy through Robin Milroy, an occupational therapist with Texas Health Fort Worth.
Through therapy, Rubenkoenig uses driving simulators and other exercises to rebuild her hand-to-eye coordination, visual processing and depth perception.
Now, Rubenkoenig is toward the end of her rehab journey, Milroy said.
“She’s gotten back to all the other things in her life that a lot of people take for granted. She’s speaking, dressing, bathing, all of those things. She’s now driving and she has her organization that she does,” Milroy said.
Since having her stroke, Rubenkoenig has felt driven by her faith to build a support network of resources and people through Sprinkling Love and through her church. In May, she shared her story at Christ Chapel’s Biblical counseling ministry called Soul Care.
“I don’t know why I got another chance at life, but because of that I do feel like I have a responsibility to share with other people,” Rubenkoenig said. “One of the beautiful things about faith is it won’t let you down. The world will let you down, but faith won’t let you down.”
Marissa Greene is a Report for America corps member, covering faith for the Fort Worth Report. You can contact her at marissa.greene@fortworthreport.org or on X, formerly known as Twitter @marissaygreene.
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