Stroke victims receive gift of recovery
Alice Landreth and Dolores Collier don’t know each other, but each just received an unexpected Christmas gift with the same funny name.
“Tell me again,” said Landreth, 79, “what does that TPA stand for?”
TPA – tissue plasminogen activator – is a clot-busting medication that reversed paralyzing stroke symptoms in both women.
Landreth was paralyzed on her right side and could not speak at 9:30 p.m. on Monday, Dec. 7. She was visiting from Mississippi at the Lone Oak home of her daughter, Frankie Adams.
“We were just lucky that we were still up and sitting there talking to each other when it hit,” said Adams. “I knew immediately she was having a stroke.”
Collier, 69, a Southside seamstress, also knew immediately she was having a stroke on Dec. 4, when she reached for an item in Wal-Mart and dropped it. All of a sudden, she slumped to the floor and could not speak, even though – like Landreth – she knew everything happening around her.
“I was just lucky someone saw me and called 9-1-1 immediately,” she said.
Both women arrived by ambulance at Western Baptist Hospital within the “golden window” of less than three hours from the time symptoms started for the intravenous TPA medication. Each actually arrived within minutes and was found to be good candidates for the medication.
“Anyone who arrives within three hours of the onset symptoms of stroke is a candidate for the medication,” said neurologist Jacqueline Carter, M.D. “The sooner you get to the hospital, the better chance it will work. There is a 6 percent chance of bleeding in the brain with the medication, but we feel the benefits of reversing and improving the symptoms of stroke far outweigh the risks. I commended the customers and staff at Wal-Mart for their quick action in making sure Mrs. Collier got to the hospital quickly.”
With the medication, Collier and Landreth both experienced nearly-immediate reversal of their speech and right-side paralysis.
“Within five minutes,” said Collier, “I was talking and all of the Emergency department staff were whooping and hollering as if I’d laid a golden egg. It not only saves your life, but it saves your quality of life.”
Landreth’s Emergency department physician, Fred Mushkat, M.D., consulted with Alex Abou-Chebl, M.D., director of interventional neurology at University Hospital in Louisville, who agreed the drug should be administered.
Western Baptist has a stroke care partnership with the University of Louisville, including access to its telemedicine stroke network via a robot. It also partners with the Purchase District Health Department on a grant to improve community awareness of stroke risk factors, symptoms and treatment.
Landreth’s recovery was fast. “I’d say within 30 minutes,” she said, “but it may have been faster.”
Adams said her mother’s recovery is the best Christmas gift her family could receive. “This could have turned out so differently,” she said. “She could have ended up in a nursing home or worse, but instead she’s walking out of the hospital. I have my mother back!”