Twins Suffer Strokes Just Nine Months Apart, Is There a Genetic Link? (PHOTO)

Twenty-six year old Arizona twins Kathryn and Kimberly Tucker both suffered a similar stroke just nine months apart from each other, ABC News reports.

Kathryn, a senior care coordinator for an insurance company, was the first twin to suffer a stroke in July 2012, and her sister suffered one nine months to the day.

Kathryn had just gone to bed that day in July when she felt a sharp pain in the back of her head on the right side. Her vision then went out and she became numb.

"I was absolutely terrified," she said to ABC News.

Luckily, her brother was at her Tempe, Ariz. apartment was able to get her to a hospital. Doctors first dismissed her symptoms and diagnosed her as having a migraine with aura, but Kathryn was in fact having a stroke. She was sent home from the emergency room without any medical intervention.

"I slept for three days straight," Kathryn said. "Then, when I woke up, my vision was horrible. Everything was distorted and one-dimensional. I could barely get around." 

Her health deteriortated so much that she went to an urgent care facility, where she was finally given her diagnosis when tests showed that she had indeed suffered a stroke. 

Nine months to the day, her twin sister Kimberly suffered the exact same kind of stroke, only the pain was on the left side of her head. Kimberly had taken off from school to care for her sister, but their roles reversed in April.

The Tucker twins are fraternal and do not share the same DNA, and because they have no family history of stroke, doctors say there is no genetic cause. 

"Honestly, it's rare for us to actually evaluate two sisters who've had strokes within months of each other,"  Dr. Joni Clark, a vascular neurologist at Barrow Neurological Institute in Phoenix, said to ABC News. "If they had a family history, it would not be a surprise. It's quite uncommon." 

Both women suffered a stroke on opposite ends of their occipital lobes, the part of the brain that sends visual input from the brain to the retinas. Strokes are one of the leading causes of death in the U.S., killing nearly 13,000 Americans every year, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

About one-third of strokes occur in people younger than 65, and for those younger than 45, the risk jumps from 14 to 20 percent, according to Clark.

"We see this mainly among young people who have risk factors that you should see in elderly patients," Clark said. "Here at Barrow, we see a huge population of stroke patients - and, in my own experience, which is anecdotal, I see a fair number of young people with stroke. The majority are spontaneous."

The twins apparently shared lifestyle traits common among young people: both twins smoke, suffer mirgraines and take birth control pills, all of which doctors said are linked to an increased amount of strokes in younger people. 

"There were several things that probably all together put Kathryn at risk," said Clark, who treated Kathryn Tucker, but not Kimberly. Kathryn now reports that her prognosis is "really good" now that she has quit smoking and stopped taking the pill. 

However, the twins are worried about their "overuse" of caffeine, as both women drink three to four energy drinks a day, though there is no evidence that links this lifestyle trait to strokes.

"Don't think you are impervious to stroke," Kimberly Tucker said. "We think we are invincible until we are not. This taught us a huge lesson that we are not guaranteed great health and we need to take care of our bodies.

"On the day of my stroke I did a 5K run. I was feeling extra thirsty the whole time and went home to take a nap." It was when she woke up that she felt the sharp pain in the back of her head. 

"My vision closed in almost completely," she said. "I wasn't making a lot of sense and was not able to form complete thoughts. But I knew I was having a stroke." 

Kimberly immediately dialed 911, and her sister then told her to take blood thinners, a decision that might have saved her life.

"I instantly knew I had a stroke because I was suffering from many of the same symptoms as my sister," Kimberly said. "The EMT's told me that the chance of both me and my sister having a stroke this young was that of being struck by lightning twice. They thought I was suffering from dehydration or heat stroke." 

Doctors later discovered that Kimberly suffered from arrythmia, a heart condition that may have contributed to the stroke. Kathryn Tucker was also discovered to have a heart condition herself: a PFO, or patent foramen ovale, a small hole in the heart that may have contributed to her own stroke.

Both women are undergoing speech and occupational therapy to recover, though they are banned from driving and still have some visual deficits.

"I still notice some weakness when I am tired," Kathryn Tucker said. "Otherwise, I am fine, physically back to normal." 

"We are super close," said Kimberly of her relationship with her twin. "I think we always have been close, but this definitely brought us closer. Honestly, she is the only person who understands because we are going through it together." 

In addition to smoking, taking the birth control pill and suffering migraines, obesity, high blood pressure and high cholesterol are also linked to an increased likelihood in having a stroke.

Click here to see a recent photo of twins Kimberly and Kathryn Tucker.