By Brian Newsome
Colorado Springs Gazette
Copyright 2008 Colorado Springs Gazette
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. — Deb Mussdorfer’s father lost his balance trying to walk six weeks ago, and she immediately suspected a stroke.
But rather than call 911, the registered nurse loaded him into the car and rushed him to the Penrose Hospital emergency room.
The drive was quick, but once there, the family was beset by delays. They had to find a wheelchair and help him out of the car. Fill out paperwork. Wait for staff to free up a CT scanner to assess his condition.
In that 45 minutes, the man’s condition was worsening. Today, he’s recovering at his home in Michigan, but Mussdorfer wonders whether the effects of his ordeal - weight loss, difficulty walking, nausea and depression - might have been less severe if she’d called an ambulance.
Hundreds of stroke patients come through local emergency rooms each year, but not all come by ambulance. Dozens of people with bleeding or blood clots on the brain amble through the front doors as if they were there for a cut on the arm or a sprained ankle, driving themselves there or getting a ride with family.
They should be calling an ambulance, doctors say. When stroke patients are taken in with lights on and sirens blaring, paramedics begin treating them en route. At the same time, the rescuers are reporting vital information to the hospital, which allows ER staff to free up equipment and space to treat them. Paperwork is put aside and doctors are prepped for what to expect.
The upshot: An ambulance ride saves time in a critical window that can mean the difference between going home with few longlasting effects or suffering irreversible brain damage. Time is brain, they say. Yet misconceptions about strokes often keep families from picking up the phone.
Dr. Michael Roshon, an emergency department physician and emergency department medical director at the not-yet-open St. Francis Medical Center, said that in some cases, he can administer clot-busting medications within the first three hours of a stroke that can significantly help save a patient’s brain. Once too much time has elapsed, that option goes away.
Some people, though, often think nothing can be done or time is not an issue. With May designated as National Stroke Awareness month, doctors want people to realize otherwise.
“The faster we can get people treated, the more options they’re going to have in the future, and hopefully the better outcome they’re going have,” said Dr. George Hertner, medical director of the Emergency Department at Memorial Hospital North.
The urgency of treating heart attack victims is wellknown. Strokes, though, are less understood. Sometimes people don’t recognize the symptoms or need for quick attention. Many people fear what it will cost to call an ambulance.
Doctors say the cost of not calling is greater.
El Paso County has the highest number of strokes per capita in Colorado. So far this year Penrose has seen 370 cases. Memorial sees about 70 stroke victims a month.
At Penrose, Stroke Program coordinator Susan Baker estimated about 20 percent come as “walk ins.”