For Immediate Release
Mercy Provides Stroke Care at All Hours
Oklahoma City—Whether you have a stroke in the wee
hours of a weekend morning or during the buzz of the work week, Mercy
has a stroke team of highly trained physicians and medical professionals
on-call around the clock.
“As far as interventional radiologists are
concerned, most hospitals are lucky to have one and Mercy now has four
who rotate call, ensuring Oklahomans stroke care at any hour of the day
or night,” said Richard Vertrees Smith, M.D., medical director of Mercy
NeuroScience Institute. “It’s rare to be able to provide stroke care
24/7 and with stroke, timing is critical.”
 This month Mercy welcomes its fourth interventional
radiologist—Gin Wang, M.D. Mercy is one of only 20 hospitals nationwide
with an interventional radiologist on-call around the clock. In 2001,
Mercy brought on two interventional radiologists—Vance McCollom, M.D.,
and Tim Tytle, M.D.—and added Robert Handley, M.D., an interventional
radiologist, in 2005. With a dedicated nursing stroke team and primary
Stroke Center certification, Mercy is the most experienced hospital in
Oklahoma in the treatment of all types of stroke.
“Since 2001, more than half of Mercy’s stroke
patients have experienced significant recovery in a week or less,” said
Dr. Smith. “Many have gone home, able to resume independent activities
with almost no trace of ever having had a stroke. By offering both
intra-venous and intra-arterial (IA) thrombolytics—of which IA increases
a stroke patient’s window of treatment from three to six hours at
Mercy—we see many patients fully recover from stroke. For the past 2,500
years, there was nothing anyone could do medically for stroke. If
someone suffered a major stroke, they either died or were severely
disabled. Today, we can intervene and give many stroke patients hope
where there was none.”
Dr. Wang, the newest interventional radiologist to
the team, received her medical degree from Duke University in Durham,
North Carolina. She also completed an internship and residency at the
University of Texas in Houston, as well as a fellowship in vascular and
interventional radiology at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer
Center.
Press release dated: July 25, 2008
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