Vim & Vigor - Spring 2020 - Community Healthcare System - 50

50

SPOTLIGHT: Community Hospital

When Minutes Matter
ADVANCES IN STROKE CARE ARE SAVING LIVES

BY MARY FETSCH

Lansing resident Bonnie
Kruse believed she was
fairly healthy. At 71, she
had never experienced any major
illnesses or injuries. However, in
summer of 2019 that was about
to change.
It began when Kruse felt a
"strange" pressure on her chest and
was feeling nauseated. It turned
out to be a heart attack. Kruse was
admitted to Community Hospital,
where physicians performed an
emergency stenting procedure to
open a blockage in her coronary
artery. After five days in the hospital, Kruse recovered quickly and
returned home.
That was when her next medical
emergency almost ended her life.
"I woke up in the middle of the
night and couldn't move my left
side," Kruse says. "I tried to speak
and my words were all garbled. I
knew something was wrong."
Kruse doesn't remember much
after that. Her husband called 911.
Emergency medical technicians
promptly confirmed the stroke
signs and called in a "stroke alert"
to Community Hospital's certified
Comprehensive Stroke Center.
The alert mobilized the hospital's
advanced medical stroke team
including a neuroendovascular
surgeon and specially trained
staff to begin preparations for
Kruse's arrival.
Upon arrival, Kruse immediately
SPRING 2020 VIM & VIGOR

Aamir
Badruddin, MD
"We have the
ability and
resources to
remove the clot
and open up the
blood vessels
so that (patient
Bonnie Kruse)
can go home and
carry on with her
life."

underwent an extensive stroke
assessment that consisted of several
CT scans. The results confirmed
a large vessel occlusion blocking
blood flow to the right side of her
brain. Immediate removal of the
clot was necessary to save her life
and minimize any possible brain
damage. Time was critical.

Ready to Act, Right Away

"Five years ago, a case like Bonnie's
would have had devastating consequences," says neuroendovascular surgeon Aamir Badruddin,
MD, medical director of the
Comprehensive Stroke Center at
Community Hospital. "Today, we
have the ability and resources to
remove the clot and open up the
blood vessels so that she can go
home and carry on with her life."
Badruddin and the stroke team
at Community Hospital immediately took Kruse to the hospital's
hybrid operating room, where
CT imaging guided the surgeon
to the location of the blood clot.
Within 15 minutes of starting the
procedure, the clot was removed
and Kruse was on her way to
recovery. (The hybrid surgical suite
is equipped for both traditional
open chest and minimally invasive
cardiac and neuroendovascular procedures.)
"Previously, patients like Bonnie
would have ended up in a nursing
home, severely debilitated," says

Jennifer Biank, RN, neuroscience
cerebrovascular program clinician.
"It gives me goosebumps. It's handsdown amazing what we can do for
(patients) today."
Large vessel strokes like the one
Kruse experienced make up about
20 percent of the stroke cases in
Northwest Indiana and surrounding
communities. Technology to successfully treat these types of strokes
has become the standard of treatment only within the last few years.
To remove a blood clot from the
brain, neuroendovascular surgeons
use a surgical device that is inserted
through a catheter into the groin
and guided into the brain and the
location of the clot. Badruddin
describes the process as using the
device essentially to "vacuum" out
the clot. Once the clot is successfully
removed, blood flow is restored to
the area of the brain affected, minimizing any further damage.
"This type of technology wasn't
clinically feasible until the last
five years or so, when it improved
significantly enough for us to be
able to get into the brain quickly,
efficiently and remove the clot in a
reliable manner," Badruddin says.
"The availability of this type of
intervention is the biggest revolution in stroke care since 1996, when
tissue plasminogen activator, or
tPA (clot-busting medication), was
introduced and created a paradigm
shift in our treatment of stroke."
Vim & Vigor - Spring 2020 - Community Healthcare System

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