Danny’s Story: New Stroke Protocol Minimizes Brain Damage
Claudia Spitzer was terrified when her grandfather, Danny Spitzer, started driving erratically one Saturday afternoon in January 2015. But she didn’t panic. Instead, this levelheaded sixth grader used her cell phone to text her mom for help, thereby
giving her grandpa a chance to survive the stroke he didn’t even realize he was having.
Danny, 65, had taken Claudia (“CB”) and her younger brother, Zach, to CB’s basketball game. Afterward, Danny and the kids headed toward his home. But within a few minutes, Danny was veering his pickup truck off the road, barely avoiding
other vehicles.
CB knew something was wrong, so she sent a text message to her mother: “Grandpa is driving in yards and going off the road. I’m scared!”
Deb was in Columbus, watching her older daughter play in a basketball tournament. Alarmed by the text message, she called CB immediately and asked to speak with her father-in-law. He sounded fine to her, but CB said she was absolutely sure something was
wrong.
Deb quickly called her husband, Darrin, and they came up with a plan. CB would ask her grandpa to pull over, explaining that Darrin was looking for them.
When her grandpa complied, CB was able to tell her mother their exact location. She spent the next 10 minutes chatting with Danny about sports, hoping to keep him distracted. Darrin, who had called 911 from his car, arrived at the scene just as an ambulance
did.
Fast, Appropriate Treatment
Paramedics tended to Danny immediately and transported him to a nearby hospital. There, a neurological exam and
CT (computed tomography)
suggested that he was experiencing an
ischemic stroke, meaning that a clot was blocking the blood flow in his brain. The doctors administered intravenous tPA, a clot-busting drug, then made arrangements for Danny to be transferred to
Miami Valley Hospital.
They knew that Miami Valley Hospital was the only hospital in the region where Danny could get the advanced treatment he needed.
Time was of the essence, says Bryan Ludwig, MD, a neurointerventional specialist with the Clinical Neuroscience Institute.
"tPA is an excellent therapy because it immediately begins to break up a clot. However, if the clot is substantial, sometimes this medication is unable to destroy the clot completely," says Dr. Ludwig, who is also an assistant professor of neurology and neuroscience, cell biology and physiology at Wright State University Boonshoft School of Medicine.
“Danny needed to be where we could perform more tests and, if possible, remove that clot. Every second counts with stroke, because when part of the brain is starved for blood, it starts to die.”
Danny was transported to Miami Valley Hospital’s Shaw Emergency and Level I Trauma Center by a mobile intensive care unit (MICU). There, within the span of about 20 minutes, he underwent tests that began to reveal the extent of the stroke damage. His family – including his wife, Nancy – waited anxiously
for news.
“MRI (magnetic resonance imaging)
showed us that the clot was affecting the blood flow throughout the left hemisphere of Danny’s brain,” Dr. Ludwig says. “The whole area was starved for blood, and it looked as if one artery, in particular, was getting only a little bit
of flow. We had to get Danny into the angiography suite right away to open up that artery.”
Dr. Ludwig performed a
cerebral catheter angiograms, a procedure that uses a special dye, imaging technology and a catheter to measure blood flow through the brain. He began by creating a small incision in the leg to gain access
into the artery, and then threaded the catheter past the heart to the affected area in the brain. After confirming the presence of an artery-clogging clot, he used a suctioning device to remove the clot through the catheter. Immediately, blood began
to flow more freely.
Because this cerebral catheter angiogram procedure was so new at the time, it was only available at select institutions.
“Without this kind of intervention, there’s no telling what kind of damage Danny would have experienced as a result of the stroke,” says Dr. Ludwig. “The clot was blocking blood flow to a large portion of his brain. Fast,
appropriate treatment gave him the best possible opportunity for a successful recovery and meaningful quality of life.”
Streamlining Care
The opportunity to help patients like Danny is the very reason Dr. Ludwig came to Miami Valley Hospital in April 2010. Previously, patients needing vascular intervention for stroke, a
cerebral aneurysm or similar disorders were sent to hospitals in Cincinnati, Columbus or Cleveland. But now, with neurointerventional specialists like Dr. Ludwig at Miami Valley Hospital, patients can receive
the care they need day or night, quickly and close to home.
Premier Health’s TeleStroke Network is the newest way Premier is speeding care to patients.
Linking Miami Valley Hospital and several other regional emergency departments, the network treats patients who are exhibiting signs of a stroke. Without losing critical time, a stroke patient arriving at these emergency departments can be examined
via a computer linked to a Premier on-call stroke specialist any time of the day or night. The specialist can “see” the patient, ask questions and view CT results - all in real-time - to help assess the patient’s condition and help
the emergency physician determine if the patient is a candidate for acute stroke therapy.
This technology dramatically reduces the timeframe for stroke assessment and action. Neurologists must assess, diagnose and treat a stroke patient quickly upon seeing the beginning signs of a stroke for clot dissolving medication to be effective. Treating
patients as quickly as possible is also important to minimize damage to the brain.
Dr. Ludwig says the benefit this technology brings to patients is tremendous.
“Telemedicine enables physicians specifically trained in acute stroke care to be electronically transported to the patient’s bedside instantly,” he says. He adds, “Such timely interactions with the family, emergency physician and
most importantly, the patient, allow for a thorough and rapid patient evaluation”.
As soon as the patient arrives at Miami Valley Hospital, the team moves quickly to perform additional tests and create a treatment plan. Within an hour, the patient can be in the angiography suite getting prepped for surgery.
“This kind of rapid response requires everyone on the medical team to work as one unit,” Dr. Ludwig says. “We don’t waste any time; we don’t make moves we shouldn’t. Every minute is important when it comes to stroke.”
What happens after surgery is just as important as what happens in the angiography suite, Dr. Ludwig says.
“Procedural repair is important, but a patient’s neurological condition can go downhill quickly if he or she doesn’t get good care afterward in the hospital,” he says. “At Miami Valley Hospital, we have a team that is specially
trained to care for stroke patients and others with a neurological condition. This is a better alternative than simply applying general ICU (intensive care unit) care to neurological patients.”
Working Toward a Full Recovery
Stroke patients and their families may not be aware of all that goes on to ensure a successful outcome, but they certainly benefit from it. Just ask Nancy Spitzer, whose husband, Danny, continues to make progress.
“When Dr. Ludwig met with us before Danny’s procedure, he was very serious and caring,” recalls Nancy. “He explained the procedure, but I didn’t really understand what he was talking about – I was just so glad that
something could be done. Danny received excellent care during his entire hospitalization, and we are really thankful for all the people who helped him.”
For his part, Danny, age 65, is continuing to undergo rehabilitation at a facility closer to his home in South Charleston, Ohio. Nancy says he is in “pretty good shape,” able to do things for himself and converse. He is not yet able to drive or return to work, but his family is optimistic that he’ll experience a full recovery, especially granddaughter CB.
“I hope everything will be the same as before so we can go fishing and work jigsaw puzzles,” she says.
Bryan R. Ludwig, MD
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