MEETING PATIENTS WHERE THEY ARE Mercy Virtual Closes Gaps in Care
Trey and Lisa Auten discovered first-hand the benefits of the telehealth care provided by Mercy Virtual and its TeleStroke program.
by Jennifer Cook, Senior Media Relations Specialist, Mercy
T
rey Auten was taking a
and he fell over.
Northwest Arkansas in Rogers.
last fall when he began to
even know I was going that slowly,” he
CT scan. Though they didn’t know it, a
break during a bike ride
feel strange. His right arm
and leg were weak, and his
“I remember falling over, but I didn’t
said.
Auten was also unaware that he
vision faltered. Still, when the friend he
was suffering a stroke. And from that
he struggled to put on his helmet and
parts of the brain begin to die when
was riding with said it was time to go, continued.
A few minutes later, as they neared
an intersection, Trey’s bike wobbled,
moment, the clock was ticking because stroke cuts off its blood flow.
His wife, Lisa, rushed to the scene
to transport him to Mercy Hospital
Immediately, Auten was taken for a
“virtual neurologist” would quickly be
reviewing Trey’s information remotely
using technology Mercy calls TeleStroke. At age 50, Trey wasn’t a typical
stroke patient, but many symptoms,
including his increasing confusion in
the emergency department, pointed to stroke.
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