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Man who had stroke at Grand Prairie Walmart wants to thank strangers who helped him

A Grand Prairie man is recovering in Arlington after a sudden stroke nearly claimed his life. Now, he's asking for help in finding all the strangers who helped him in his hour of need.

ARLINGTON, Texas -- A Grand Prairie man is recovering in Arlington after a sudden stroke nearly claimed his life. Now, he's asking for help in finding all the strangers who helped him in his hour of need.

Cody Ayers didn't know that at 37, he'd have to re-learn how to walk. That curveball came last Tuesday, while he was pushing a cart full of groceries in a Grand Prairie Walmart parking lot.

"I just thought I just tripped," he said. "I was pretty much incoherent."

The young and otherwise healthy married father of two was having a stroke. At Medical City Arlington, doctors found a huge blood clot and removed it by performing a mechanical thrombectomy.

"They had to, from what I gather, go through my groin all the way up to my brain and suck out the clot," he said. "And that saved my life."

In the week since, Ayers improvement is as great as his gratitude. He told his wife Maura he wanted to find the people who got him in that ambulance the afternoon of Tuesday, May 8 around 1 p.m. at the Walmart off I-20 near Great Southwest Parkway.

"It's like the two degrees of separation in Grand Prairie, so we figured if we put it out there someone would know someone who knows someone!" she said.

It was Grand Prairie Police who found them the women who called 911. Ayers gave her a call Tuesday afternoon.

"I was very shocked, and very emotional," said Talieah Persad.

Ayers happened to stumble in front of where Persad, a newly Certified Nurses Assistant, who happened to park.

"It made me feel better that I was able to put my knowledge and training to good use for somebody else that needed it," she said.

"I told her when I get completely healed, I'm going to give her a hug," said Ayers.

There were others who helped, and Ayers wants to find them too. To thank them for the chance to watch his kids grow up, and to put one foot in front of the other. If you were there or know someone who was, let reporter Marie Saavedra know!

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