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 “This is the first time in the history of medicine,
from Hippocrates in 436 B.C., to the year 2000, that there has been any
meaningful treatment for stroke,” said
Richard Vertrees Smith, MD,
neurosurgeon and medical director of Mercy NeuroScience Institute.
“Today at Mercy, we offer the most comprehensive stroke care in the
state.”
For the family members who have watched loved ones
collapse before them, unable to speak or move or see, the only word that
will suffice is “miracle.” In a relatively short amount of time, the
patients and the family move from a debilitating fear to complete joy as
the stroke victim regains vision, speech and movement.
For Felix Kay, a Midwest City physician who has been
practicing medicine for almost five decades, his 2005 stroke was an eye
opener. After getting up for a drink of water, he suddenly couldn’t see.
While making his way back to a chair to sit down, he decided to call out
to his wife in the next room, but he couldn’t speak. Then when he tried
to get up from his chair, he couldn’t move.
“I was trying to do something, but I couldn’t do
anything,” said Dr. Kay, who recalls the event with raw emotion. “It
felt like I was trapped in some underground tunnel. It was very
frightening. And although I knew Mercy had a stroke program, I never
dreamed I’d personally experience it. Thanks to Mercy, I have no after
effects from the stroke. I had the stroke on a Monday night and by
Friday, I was seeing patients in my office. I feel like I’m the luckiest
guy going.”
When Dr. Kay was transported to Mercy, physicians
performed a stroke procedure called intra-arterial thrombolytics. By
inserting a catheter into Dr. Kay’s artery, interventional radiologists
went directly to the clot in the brain with a clot-dissolving drug.
Although clot-dissolving drugs can also be injected into a patient’s
vein within a three-hour window after a stroke, they are much less
precise.
While Mercy offers both stroke treatments,
most patients don’t get to the hospital within the three-hour window. By
providing a six-hour time period at Mercy, more than six times the
number of patients are now able to be treated.
For the intra-arterial treatment, an arteriogram is
required (venous treatments don’t require arteriograms). The arteriogram
is vital because it shows whether or not there is even a clot causing
the problem.
 “If there’s a clot, we can guide the catheter to
tiny arteries in the brain and place the clot-busting drug directly on
the clot to break it up, but if we use the venous treatment, we just
give it and hope for the best, not knowing whether or not there’s a
clot,” said
Vance McCollom, M.D., a Mercy interventional radiologist.
For Dr. Kay, the results were nothing short of amazing. “I was perfectly
fine after the procedure,” said Dr. Kay. “I didn’t need speech therapy
or physical therapy or anything else. I walked out the same as I’d
always been. It was a miracle.”
While stroke is often associated with obesity,
elevated cholesterol levels, high blood pressure and a family history of
the disease, Stephanie Payahsape, an avid runner and mother of three,
had no risk factors.
At 39, as Payahsape was keeping stats and cheering
for her teenage daughter at an Edmond basketball tournament, something
went wrong. While writing down stats, her arm suddenly fell to her side.
She dropped her pencil and slumped to the floor. After being rushed to
Mercy, doctors found that Payahsape couldn’t be treated with
clot-busting drugs.
Instead MERCI, or Mechanical Embolus Removal in
Cerebral Ischemia – a corkscrew shaped device – was inserted through a
small incision in Payahsape’s groin, then threaded through arteries to
her brain. The device captured a clot and pulled it out of her brain,
restoring blood flow.
“This is the first FDA- approved stroke technology
available that allows us to actually remove a deadly blood clot lodged
in the brain,” said Dr. McCollom.
“Until the recent arrival of this device, we’ve only been able to get to
a brain clot with a clot-dissolving drug. Because 85 percent of strokes
are due to blood clots and because sometimes a clot can’t be dissolved,
this new technology has saved lives and saved people from long-term
disabilities.”
Whether it’s a stroke, brain bleed or tumor, Mercy
has a team of highly specialized physicians and clinicians, and the very
latest technology, as well as one of the only hospitals in the state
conducting critical clinical stroke trials, to provide comprehensive
stroke and neuro care.
“If you or someone you love is suffering a stroke,
you want to go to Mercy because you want to go to the place with a
proven track record,” said Dr. McCollom. “We have excellent outcomes.
Whatever the cause of someone’s neurological problem, we can take care
of them.”
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