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On Aug. 9, 2013, Jordan Greer was finishing up football practice when the entire left side of his body suddenly went numb.

After practice, the 16-year-old and his family had planned to put down their sick dog.

"It was just going to be a sad day," Jordan, now 18, tells People. "But then it became frightening." Jordan made a tackle, and when he tried to get up, the high school junior at Bay Area Christian School, in League City, felt like everything was spinning. "The world felt like it was at a 45-degree angle," he says. "I knew at that point that something really wasn't good."

Jordan didn't know it at the time, but James "Bubba" Wilson, an outreach athletic trainer with Memorial Hermann Ironman Sports Medicine Institute, who assessed him immediately during practice, played a huge role in saving his life. Wilson noticed stroke symptoms right away, and when Jordan got to the hospital, it was determined that's exactly what had happened.

Strokes occur in only about four to six children for every 100,000, according to Memorial Hermann Southeast Hospital, where Jordan was admitted.

"I had no clue what was wrong with me," Jordan says. "But the symptoms kept on getting worse. It was like someone drew a line down the middle of my body and everything on the left side just wouldn't work." Double vision kicked in, his face became droopy, and his speech was slurred. When someone touched his arm, he felt the pressure, but he couldn't pinpoint the exact spot they touched. Jordan was told he was going to be transferred to Memorial Hermann-Texas Medical Center, but in the midst of extreme fear, a straight-talking medic provided some relief.

"An ambulance medic came into my room and he could tell I was tearing up," he says. "He looked at me straight in the eye and said, 'We prepare for the worst. That way, if the worst happens, we are ready, but if the best comes, we can rejoice.' "

Article courtesy of Texas Medical Center News