Speaking gibberish has long been known to be a telltale sign of a stroke, but how about nonsensical text messages? It turns out, those can also be a key indicator of a life-threatening loss of blood supply to the brain — a newly recognized phenomenon called dystextia.

After receiving a series of befuddling texts from his 25-year-old pregnant wife regarding her due date, a worried husband brought her to Brigham and Women’s Hospital where neurologists diagnosed a stroke. They reported the case in last week’s issue of the journal Archives of Neurology.