DECATUR — SamBinkley knew something was wrong, but she didn’t knowwhat.

The16-year-old Eisenhower High School junior suffered a series ofstrokes in October, culminating in a massive stroke Oct. 17 thatleft her unable to move her left arm or leg.

But for a fewmonths before that, she’d had minor symptoms. There was somenumbness in her mouth and fingertips. She fell down the stairs oneday because she couldn’t feel her feet.

The symptomswent away, but Sam’s family was concerned. She had an appointmentwith a neurologist scheduled for Oct. 19, but it would turn out tobe too late.

“She was aperfectly healthy, 16-year-old kid that walks into the emergencyroom and is told she’s had a stroke,” said her mother, TuesdayBinkley. “It was scary.”

Sam’sexperience, while unusual, is growing more common, according toresearch announced at an American Stroke Association conference thepast week. Government researchers compared hospitalizations in 1994and 1995 with those in 2006 and 2007, according to The AssociatedPress.

Men ages 15through 34 saw a 51 percent increase, while women in the same agegroup saw a 17 percent increase.

Severalmedical professionals attributed the cause to unhealthy habits. Atthe University of California at Los Angeles, doctors are seeingmore strokes related to high blood pressure and clogged arteries inyounger people, said Dr. Jeffrey Saver, director of the strokecenter at UCLA.

AllisonHooker, a nurse who coordinates stroke care at Forsyth MedicalCenter in Winston-Salem, N.C., said her hospital also is seeingmore strokes in younger people with risk factors such as smoking,obesity, high blood pressure, alcohol overuse anddiabetes.

But Samwas healthy, active and athletic. in fact, she was working outduring a preseason basketball practice when she lost feeling in herfeet Oct. 15. Eisenhower girls’ basketball coach Sean Flaherty sawit happen, but he didn’t know what he was seeing.

“I thought to myself, ‘It sounds likea stroke,’ ” Flaherty said. “But I thought, ‘What are the odds of a16-year-old having a stroke?’ ”

Once sherecovers a little more, Sam and her parents plan to raise awarenessabout the answer to that question.