Aspirus Health Delivers Exceptional Stroke Care When it Matters Most

Every 40 seconds someone in the United States has a stroke and every three minutes and 11 seconds someone dies of stroke. That’s according to the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention.

It is why Aspirus Health values highlighting World Stroke Day on Tuesday, October 29 and offering the highest quality stroke care. It is a day meant to underscore the serious nature and high rates of stroke, raise awareness of stroke prevention and treatment and ensure better care and support for survivors.

Strokes happen when there is damage to the brain. In most cases a blood vessel in the brain gets clogged and the brain stops functioning or a blood vessel in the brain breaks and leaks blood. When strokes happen, it’s important to act quickly because the brain stops functioning and dies over time.

“The way it happens is that when a blood vessel is clogged, it is getting a collateral blood flow from other smaller blood vessels, but that collateral blood flow is not robust enough to keep it alive for a long period of time,” Aspirus St. Luke’s Stroke Program Medical Director Dr. Fareed Suri explained. “It is able to keep it alive in the part that's more closer to that collateral flow, but the deeper parts are suffering more and they are dying more quickly. So the sooner we open up the main blood vessel, the sooner we are able to restore the blood flow, the more we are able to save the brain.”

At Aspirus St. Luke’s the stroke program is being taken to the next level with six new stroke and interventional neurologists, a new tele-stroke program that allows for 24-7 evaluation of patient being brought to the hospital for a stroke, close monitoring after initial life-saving procedures are performed and the launch of new biplane technology.

“Normally the machines that are available for doing this kind of procedure are only looking at one angle, which basically means that when we are doing intricate procedures in the blood vessels of the brain, we may not have a complete perspective and that sometimes makes it difficult to do those procedures,” Dr. Suri said. “When you have a perspective two different angles, you're viewing those blood vessels, it helps us to do those intricate procedures more safely than otherwise possible.”

It’s important to note that high blood pressure, diabetes, high cholesterol and smoking are the four major risk factors for stroke. While symptoms of a stroke to watch for include:

• Balance – Sudden loss of coordination or balance
• Eyes – Sudden change in vision
• Face – Sudden weakness on one side of the face or facial droop
• Arm – Sudden arm or leg weakness or numbness
• Speech – Sudden slurred speech, trouble speaking, trouble understanding speech
• Terrible Headache – Sudden onset of a terrible headache

To learn more about Aspirus St. Luke’s comprehensive stroke program, click here.