Every 40 seconds, someone in the United States suffers a stroke.
"My left arm and part of my face were numb and tingling, and when I went to stand up to dress myself, I fell right to the floor," Brad Fahrenkamp recalled of his stroke.
"It never occurred to me that it could possibly be a stroke. It didn't even cross my mind," said Jessie Porter, another stroke patient.
But getting treatment quickly can make all the difference.
Dr. Peter Rasmussen, a neurosurgeon at the Cleveland Clinic, said the life-saving drug tPA must be delivered within four-and-a-half hours or less of a stroke, and the sooner the better.
"Unfortunately in the United States, only between three- and eight-percent of Americans get tPA if they're having a stroke," Rasmussen said.
Doctors at the Cleveland Clinic are trying to change that with a new mobile stroke unit. It travels to the emergency scene when a stroke is suspected.
"I can't really think of a faster way that you could deliver stroke care to a patient," Rasmussen said.
The unit is equipped with a CT scanner. The mobile team can scan a patient's brain and perform lab tests right away. The results are sent to a neurologist at the hospital, who can make a diagnosis via a broadband telemedicine link. The on-board staff can then deliver treatment before the patient even gets to the emergency room.
"We're able to initiate therapy at the scene immediately," Rasmussen explained.
Preliminary studies show the mobile unit is working. Less than 10-percent of patients nationwide receive tPA. With the mobile unit, more than 30-percent are getting the drug.
"I'm convinced this is a better way to deliver stroke care to the people of this country," Rasmussen said.
It's stroke care on the go that could save lives.
The Cleveland Clinic implemented the mobile stroke unit after visiting a hospital in Berlin that used a similar technique. That hospital was able to cut down on the time it took to deliver tPA by more than 30 minutes.
The unit costs a little less than $1 million, and it will likely cost about $1 million a year to staff it, but doctors say it may actually be a money-saver if it can help prevent more stroke patients from needing rehabilitation or life-long nursing care.
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