A community health education series from Stanford Hospital & Clinics
When Stroke Strikes No Time to Waste: Rapid Recognition and Reaction Turn Tide Chris McLachlin’s survival story reads like the script for a Hollywood movie where, unbelievably but totally by chance, everything happens at just the right moment and in just the right place.
When physicians called his wife to get her permission to administer the gold standard, frontline clot-dissolving medication, she answered her phone just as she was about to step inside a movie theater where she would not have had phone reception for at least three hours. For McLachlin, as it is with anyone having a stroke, time is everything. No matter what the stroke’s cause, every second that passes means more brain cells die of oxygen starvation and more capabilities lost. Physicians and scientists know more about stroke than they ever have, and can reach inside the brain with more impact than was ever dreamed of, even three years ago. But stroke remains a leading cause of death in the US and the primary cause of
Expert Care Quickly McLachlin became a patient of the Stanford Stroke Center at Stanford Hospital & Clinics, considered a national leader in advanced stroke treatment. At Stanford, an innovative, streamlined protocol called the SIRS (Stroke Interventional Radiology Service) Rapid Access Program drives patient care, particularly for patients coming from other hospitals, delivered in the fastest fashion possible.
“I remember feeling paralyzed on my right side. I wasn’t frightened because I didn’t understand what was going on.” – Chris McLachlin, stroke patient at Stanford Stroke Center The protocol includes a rapid access transfer system that includes specific time goals for each step, a checklist, a simultaneous page to a full team of medical professionals to plan care ready as soon as the new patient arrives.
Norbert von der Groeben
Quick care is important, but the risk of stroke can be reduced with changes in behavior that make other medical sense, too: quit smoking, eat a balanced diet and exercise regularly. For people with high blood pressure, diabetes and high cholesterol, medications can be very effective. “All of those things go a tremendously long way toward controlling risk,” said Neil Schwartz, MD, PhD, who treated It took a year, but McLachlin recovered nearly all his abilities. He’s been well McLachlin at the enough to fill in as a coach for the past two years with the Stanford University Stanford Stroke Men’s Volleyball team. He always does the warm-ups with the team. Center.
12 N The Almanac N May 18, 2011
Norbert von der Groeben
When he stopped talking in midconversation and slumped over the couch, one of the people in the room with him was someone who’d had a stroke, recognized the symptoms and immediately called 911. He was at a hospital within 15 minutes.
adult disability. The direct and indirect costs in 2009 neared $69 billion.
Chris McLachlin thought he had his health under control: He’d been an athlete since middle school, made sure he got eight hours of sleep each night and kept his cholesterol in mind when he ate. Age, however, is one element that can’t be altered. McLachlin had just retired after 37 years as a sports coach, teacher, counselor and administrator at the Punahou School in Honolulu, Hawaii. He coached the school’s teams to 11 state titles in volleyball and three in basketball.
A Healthy Life Derailed From the time he was in middle school, McLachlin had been an athlete. Basketball and volleyball were his sports and when he arrived at Stanford as an undergraduate, he began a collegiate athletic career that concluded with the unusual post of player-coach on Stanford’s volleyball team.
Hawaii and stopped in the Bay Area to visit a family that had helped him through graduate school at Stanford more than 40 years earlier. He was sitting in their living room and talking with them when suddenly he noticed he couldn’t speak. “I remember feeling paralyzed on my right side and falling over on my right onto the couch,” he said. “I wasn’t frightened because I didn’t understand what was going on. I was in a kind of haze. I was not really aware of what was going on.”
Throughout his adult life, he said, “my attitude about my health was pretty good. I was good at getting eight hours of sleep, my cholesterol was good, and I played steady tennis and golf. My blood pressure was a little high but not serious; I was taking medication for it.” He played master’s class volleyball until he was 55; his father, at 89, still plays tennis five days a week. McLachlin considered himself to be in great shape, and was looking forward to a trip that would take him to visit one son at Stanford, another son in Arizona and his daughter in Southern California. He flew from
McLachlin has become an active advocate for steps people ca pressure and cholesterol checks.