When eight-year-old Christina Teeter went looking for her
grandfather, she found him unresponsive on the floor.

Gordon Howell had what doctors believed to be a stroke. Howell
was going to go out and mow his lawn, and his grandchildren were
going to help him with yard work July 5. When he didn’t show up,
Christina went to the house to find him and discovered him on the
back porch.

She got Howell’s roommate and neighbor, who called 911, Howell
said. When the paramedics arrived his blood pressure, body
temperature and oxygen level were low. Paramedics took him to
Bradford Regional Medical Center where doctors treated him for a
stroke.

“I woke up at 9 (a.m.) and the next thing I remember is being at
the emergency room at 11,” Howell said. “I owe my life to my
granddaughter.”

Shirley Howell, his mother, said she remembers getting off the
phone with him around 10:15 a.m. He spent three days in the
hospital, according to her, and Christina stayed with him as much
as she could.

“She wanted to stay the night and the doctor said she couldn’t,
so she made her mom take her up there at 9 in the morning. She’d
stay all day and eat meals with him,” she said.

Christina said she and her grandfather are close as she proudly
showed off the green teddy bear and flower she got him while he was
in the hospital.

Howell said he has a condition that causes the blood vessels in
his head to deteriorate, as well as other medical conditions. He
said his strokes will continue to get progressively worse with the
one July 5 being the worst so far. His mother said he usually gets
headaches. He said his mind is affected more than his body.

“I don’t remember things all that great, but I don’t have any
physical defects,” he said.

He said he has been feeling “so-so” since the stroke. His mother
said he uses a cane to strengthen his left side.

Howell said it was just a matter of timing on his
granddaughter’s part. His mother agrees.

“He looked at me and said, ‘If it weren’t for Christina I’d be
dead’ and I said, ‘Yep,'” she said.

Howell celebrated his 52nd birthday Wednesday, for which
Christina baked him a cake.