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Providence Stroke Patient's "Miracle" Recovery
Result of Daughter Doing The Right Thing
April 11, 2006
(See note below about educational forums on stroke.)
PORTLAND, Ore. - Dora Lee Nonne remembers starting to dress on that Saturday morning. “I got one leg in my pants, and my other leg wouldn’t move,” recalls Nonne. “The last thing I remember is falling to the floor.”
Nonne’s daughter heard her 78-year-old mother hit the ground. Sue Palanuk found Nonne beside her bed, her eyes didn’t track, and the left side of her face drooped dramatically. Palanuk knew her mother had suffered a stroke. And she knew time was of the essence.
Boring Rural Fire Department crews responded to the 9-1-1 call to Palanuk’s home. Palanuk rode with her mother in the ambulance, and demanded they be taken to Providence Portland Medical Center (PPMC) where they expected to get expert stroke care.
The stroke team was alerted, Palanuk was tested and a clot-busting drug was administered. Palanuk and her siblings were amazed at what happened next. “We literally watched the movement come back,” remembers Palanuk. “Her left arm started to move again, her face relaxed, her eyes started to see us again and follow movement.”
Nonne’s stroke was debilitating enough she could have died or at the least been significantly disabled for the rest of her life. Instead the tiny, gray-haired woman walked out of Providence Portland Medical Center after 12 days of treatment and rehabilitation with only the slightest remnants of the stroke. What seems like a miracle recovery is really the result of timing and attention.
“Dora Lee was lucky to be with someone who recognized the signs of stroke and called 9-1-1,” said Lisa Yanase, M.D., medical director of the acute stroke program at Providence Portland Medical Center. “If everyone who thought they were having a stroke or witnessing a stroke would call 9-1-1, we could save many people from severe disability and even death.”
Palanuk knew how a stroke manifested because her maternal aunt had suffered a debilitating one years ago. She also knew time was important - she remembered seeing huge Providence Brain Institute billboards along the freeway that stated in cases of stroke “Time lost is brain lost.”
Palanuk had her mother in an emergency room immediately after the stroke - and in an emergency room of a hospital nationally designated as a primary stroke center. The specialists at PPMC were able to identify why she had the stroke, and what medication would work to dissolve the clot and restore blood flow.
The clot-busting medication, tPA, can be highly effective but only if it is administered within three hours of the onset of the stroke.
While not everyone benefits from the drug, nationally less than 2 percent of those who would benefit from it are able to get it because they don’t make it to a medical facility in time.
Strokes occur when a blood vessel supplying blood to the brain either bursts or is blocked by a blood clot. In a matter of minutes, brain tissue within that area is damaged, and may die without proper treatment. As a result, the part of the body controlled by the damaged section of the brain cannot function properly.
Warning signs of a stroke are sudden and on one side of the body - if any of the following symptoms occur, call 9-1-1 immediately as they may indicate a stroke:
· numbness, weakness or paralysis of the face, arm or leg
· vision change
· language change
· worst headache in life
Some stroke risk factors cannot be controlled, such as family history, age and gender. But others can be controlled, including high blood pressure, diabetes, high cholesterol, smoking, lack of physical exercise, obesity and some heart conditions.
May is National Stroke Awareness Month. Stroke is now the number three killer in the United States behind heart disease and cancer, claiming nearly 170,000 lives each year. It is the leading cause of serious, long-term adult disability in the country, making it the number one reason people are admitted to nursing homes. Nearly 750,000 people will have a new or recurrent stroke each year. More disturbing from a local standpoint are recent statistics that rank Oregon as the state with the fifth highest stroke death rate in the country.
NOTE:
Providence Brain Institute is sponsoring several educational events for the public during National Stroke Awareness Month:
· Stroke Fair: Noon - 2 p.m. and 6 - 7 p.m., Tuesday, May 23, Providence Portland Medical Center, 4805 NE Glisan, Portland
· Stroke Forum: 7 p.m., Tuesday, May 23, Providence Portland Medical Center, 4805 NE Glisan, Portland
· Stroke Forum: 7 p.m., Tuesday, May 30, Providence St. Vincent Medical Center, 9205 SW Barnes Rd., Portland
Todd Kuether, M.D., medical director, Providence Neurointerventional Program will be joined by Lisa Yanase, M.D., medical director of the acute stroke program at Providence Portland Medical Center for the PPMC forum and by Ted Lowenkopf, M.D., medical director, Providence Stroke Center, Providence St. Vincent Medical Center at the PSVMC forum.
The fair and forums are free and open to the public.
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Providence Stroke Center, Oregon’s first JCAHO- certified program for stroke care, works in cooperation with the Oregon Stroke Center to provide round-the-clock acute stroke evaluation and cutting-edge treatment. Stroke patients are cared for by a team of experts who work to identify stroke cause; minimize stroke-related disability; and guide patients to recovery and rehabilitation after hospitalization. The center's neuro bi-plane room enables neurointerventionalists to rapidly view a patient's brain from multiple angles by way of a 3-D camera; such advanced technology expedites treatment of life-threatening conditions such as cerebral aneurysms and certain types of strokes. Providence Stroke Center is part of the Providence Brain Institute and offers services at both Providence St. Vincent and Providence Portland Medical Centers. For more information, visit www.providence.org/brain.
Contact:
Jean Powell Marks Kate Chester
503-215-6200 503-216-7138
jean.marks@providence.org catherine.chester@providence.org
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