St. Luke's stroke care saves lives

Success story for Grand Rapids grandmother

While Beverly remembers few details of the flight to Duluth or the rest of that night, Dr. Althoen and his team had removed the clot from her brain using a procedure called a stroke thrombectomy.

This clot retrieval procedure requires a physician to thread a catheter through the femoral artery and then to the brain, using a clot-grabbing device within it to reach and remove the clot.

After the procedure and 10 days of recovery and rehabilitation at St. Luke’s, Beverly was able to go back home. “I feel really great. I am still doing physical therapy, and I am working on getting my strength back,” she said.

Until relatively recently, the closest place Northland patients could receive stroke thrombectomies was the Twin Cities. The travel time to the Twin Cities meant not getting care as timely as possible.

Beverly noted that if she would have been flown to a Minneapolis hospital for treatment instead of to St. Luke’s in Duluth, she probably would not have survived or would have come out of this with much more serious impairments.

Recognized for their stroke care by the American Heart Association and American Stroke Association, St. Luke’s is the only hospital in the region to offer the option of stroke thrombectomies. Their highly trained staff and state-of-the-art hybrid operating room save time and brain for their patients.

Stan Sadenwasser, St. Luke’s Cardiovascular Services Coordinator, said, “We’re very, very fortunate to be able to provide stroke thrombectomies which have a success rate of 70 to 75 percent for qualifying patients.”

“Stroke is such a devastating disease for both the patient and their families. We want to do everything we can to use best practices for treating a stroke using the clot-busting drug tPA (Tissue Plasminogen Activator) or performing a thrombectomy,” Sadenwasser added.

“Time is of the essence to get the patient to the hospital, get the stroke diagnosed and then follow up with the best plan for each patient. While it doesn’t cure everybody, thrombectomies give some patients the best chance for recovery,” Dr. Althoen said.

Thankful for her new lease on life, Beverly added, “I have always been a positive person. I came through cancer six years ago. Both the cancer and the stroke reminded me that you need to enjoy every day you’ve got spending time with your loved ones.”

Dr. Althoen added, “It is very satisfying for St. Luke’s to be the regional center for this procedure.” D

Sheryl Jensen is a Duluth freelance writer and former managing editor of The Woman Today. She wrote this for St. Luke’s.