Iowa stroke survivor continues mission to help others

By Nicole Tam

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    DES MOINES, Iowa (KCCI) — DES MOINES, Iowa — Craig Hunt owns Universal Kutz in Des Moines. In 2019, he partnered with health care professionals and started offering blood pressure checks in his shop. Since then, he says he has hosted more than 100 events and screened hundreds of people.

Hunt had a stroke in 2016 when he was 39. The recovery wasn’t always easy.

“Couldn’t cut with my left hand. I had to learn to cut my right hand. So, it was like starting all over again. And I knew the product that I was delivering wasn’t as good. And I was trying to mask everything that was going on with me, and I was embarrassed,” Hunt explained.

Hunt is now 48 years old, and when he picks up the razor with his left hand, he feels grateful for his recovery and excited about the chance to share his story with others.

“We have to take time to make sure that we ourselves are OK,” Hunt said.

The American Heart Association says what Hunt is doing, providing outreach outside the doctor’s office, is a concept that works.

“To be able to engage with some of our health care volunteers in a comfortable spot to learn about some general hard numbers of where to go if those numbers are consistently high,” Wesley Franklin, community impact director at the American Heart Association, said.

Franklin says it’s important to measure blood pressure at the same time. If those numbers are consistently high, it’s time to see a doctor.

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