What started as a Saturday morning of father-daughter bonding on the mats ended with a medical emergency that has left an Owatonna man facing a long road ahead.
Michael Selle was training alongside his teenage daughter, McKayla, at a Brazilian jiu-jitsu gym in Eagan when he first began feeling off.
Dizziness and numbness crept in during the session, but he pressed on and finished the class. It was only afterward, as he attempted to get behind the wheel for the drive home, that the situation became impossible to ignore.
Not far from the gym, Selle lost control of the vehicle, striking curbs along the road before managing to pull over. He told McKayla his arm had gone numb. She didn’t hesitate. Reading the warning signs clearly, she pushed for an immediate trip to the nearest emergency room.
At Abbott Northwestern – WestHealth in Plymouth, doctors delivered a serious diagnosis: Selle had experienced a stroke and sustained a torn carotid artery.
“A freak accident that none of us could have anticipated,” McKayla wrote on a GoFundMe page she launched to help her family through the ordeal. “One moment we were sharing a passion we both love, and the next, our lives changed in an instant.”
The situation grew more critical within hours of his arrival. Selle was transferred to the neurological ICU at Abbott Northwestern Hospital in Minneapolis, where a second and more severe stroke occurred. Physicians intervened by inserting a stent to help stabilize his condition.
The recovery ahead is expected to be prolonged. Selle, described by his daughter as someone energetic, devoted, and deeply engaged in life, is currently unable to return to work.
“My father is active, dedicated, and full of life. Now, he’s unable to work as he focuses on healing and rehabilitation,” McKayla wrote. “The medical bills are already piling up, and the costs of ongoing care and therapy are overwhelming.”
“As his daughter, I want to do everything I can to support him, but we can’t do it alone,” McKayla wrote.
So far, the fundraiser has raised more than $12,000.
