Swedish Medical Center | Swedish Cares | Issue 1

Remember—B.E. F.A.S.T. for stroke F Face Drooping. Is one side of the face numb or drooping? Ask the person to smile—is the smile uneven? A Arm Weakness or Numbness. Ask the person to raise both arms out to the sides, and take note if one arm drifts downward. S Speech Difficulty. Can the person speak at all? Is speech slurred or otherwise difficult to understand? Ask the person to repeat a simple sentence. T Time. If a person has any of these symptoms, call 911, even if symptoms go away. And note the time so you can let medical personnel know what time symptoms started. How a grateful stroke survivor beat the odds IT’S REMARKABLE, really, that Bill O’Gorman can actually tell you how grateful he is to be alive. The stroke he survived last April was the most severe kind of ischemic stroke. “The typical outcome for someone with the stroke Bill had is to be unable to communicate or understand what’s said ever again,” says Jeff Wagner, MD, a fellowship-trained stroke neurologist and part of the highly specialized stroke team that treated Bill at Swedish Medical Center. “And most people can’t move the right side of their body again either.” But 24 hours after his stroke started, Bill had completely recovered. This is the story of how everything went perfectly for him. Bill’s first symptom occurred at work when his speech suddenly became garbled and a co-worker asked him to repeat what he’d said. “She looked at me funny,” Bill recalls. When he still slurred his words, she rushed to get Bill’s boss, who immediately suspected Bill was having a stroke. His boss knew the red flags—besides slurred speech, one side of his face drooped and he had trouble lifting one arm. She immediately called 911. That fast response was crucial for Bill, since treating a stroke is a race against time. Every second counts. “The longer blood flow is interrupted to the brain, the greater the chance of irreversible damage,” Dr. Wagner says. Record-breaking speed That’s why Swedish Medical Center—home to Colorado’s first Comprehensive Stroke Center— partners with local emergency medical services (EMS) providers. When EMS providers see a person with stroke symptoms, they notify the Swedish Stroke Center that a potential stroke patient is headed to the emergency department (ED). This way the whole stroke team is at the ED door—ready to assess the patient right away and start treatment. For an ischemic stroke, that treatment is a clot- busting drug delivered intravenously. But safely administering it first requires a CT scan to make sure someone is having an ischemic stroke. In Bill’s case, the stroke team was so incredibly efficient that they started the IV drip for the clot- busting drug in just seven minutes after Bill arrived at Swedish. “To the best of my knowledge, that’s a world record,” Dr. Wagner says. “Hospitals often struggle to get below an hour.” Bill’s clot was so large that he also required delicate brain surgery to remove the clot. A special reunion One month after his stroke, Bill came back to Swedish for a chance to meet everyone responsible for his recovery, including the ambulance crew. “I didn’t know how to express how truly thankful I was,” he recalls. “And everybody said, ‘That’s fine—this is our job. We’re just so glad you’re OK.’” ➤ ➤ FOR MORE INFORMATION find us online at swedishhospital.com/stroke . 24 hours after his stroke started, Bill had completely recovered. B Balance Problems. Does the person have a sudden loss of balance or coordination? E Eyesight Changes. Is the person suddenly having vision trouble, double vision or blurred vision? swedishhospital.com 3