Stroke Of Luck

By Louie St. George III

Inher own words, Tuula Harris acknowledges “the stars aligned for me” on Nov. 12, 2018. The fact that Harris speaks so favorably about the day she suffered a stroke reveals the extent of her good fortune.

It started with a swift response by Harris’ alert husband, Ed Kass, who heard his wife “squeal out” from the bedroom of their Solon Springs home and hurried to her side. Kass says “her face was drooping and she wasn’t really being coherent.” A volunteer paramedic from Solon Springs arrived within 10 minutes of Kass’ 911 call, and the ambulance service out of Hawthorne — thankfully available — followed soon thereafter to whisk Harris to Essentia Health-St. Mary’s Medical Center in Duluth.

If Tuula Harris had been forced to travel to the Twin Cities for care after suffering a stroke in November 2018, her life today likely would look much different. But Essentia Health-St. Mary’s Medical Center in Duluth was able to treat Harris, and she was back home in Solon Springs less than 48 hours later, on her way to a complete recovery.

to Minneapolis. Her quality of life would look drastically different today.

“She basically would have needed 24-7 care and possibly would have ended up in a nursing home, if not worse,” Dr. Jadhav said.

Harris, who walked out of Essentia less than 48 hours after being rushed into the emergency room, was vacationing in Mexico with Kass two months later.

There, the serendipity continued.

Before August 2018, Essentia wasn’t equipped to provide the kind of advanced care necessary for a patient in Harris’ condition — she had a blood clot occluding her posterior cerebral circulation — and instead would have sent her to the Twin Cities. That changed when Dr. Vikram Jadhav, an interventional neurologist, joined Essentia and brought the capability to perform procedures like the thrombectomy that would prove so vital to Harris’ wellbeing.

Two hours and 16 minutes after entering Essentia, Harris’ clot was removed and blood flow was restored. And Dr. Jadhav and his team have only gotten better. More recently, a patient had a clot removed within 19 minutes of arrival. The interventional neurologist credited his team for the ongoing improvement, which demands a razor-sharp focus on details.

There’s a saying when it comes to stroke care that “time is brain.” Indeed, for every minute that a large-vessel stroke goes untreated, about 2 million brain cells die. Imagine, then, if Harris had been forced to reroute 120 miles south

“I’m just very thankful that we have the personnel and the facilities to deal with these kinds of events,” the 72-year-old said following a recent Superior Rotary meeting at Barkers Island, one of myriad commitments that keep her busy.

Harris has the kind of matter-of-fact personality you’d expect from a woman who immigrated from Finland to the United States at age 9, earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the University of Wisconsin-Superior, then spent 30 years working in education at her alma mater. She retired from UWS in 2004 as director of human resources.

As Harris felt a headache coming on while getting ready for bed that night in November 2018, her reaction was to hurry up and fall asleep. And when Kass started to dial 911, Harris voiced her displeasure. “I’m fine,” she called out. Kass persisted. When she got to Essentia, Dr. Jadhav’s team was ready for her.

“We’re very fortunate that Essentia had such high-quality doctors to perform this surgery,” Kass said. “Without them, she’d never be in the physical condition she’s in now.

“I’m very happy that my wife’s still with me.” Harris knows the outcome could have been much worse.

“I’ve seen so many other stroke victims, people my age, my classmates,” she said. “I just thank my lucky stars all the time.”

This past September, Essentia Health-St. Mary’s Medical Center received Advanced Thrombectomy-Capable Stroke Center certification from the Joint Commission. The certification recognizes Essentia’s ability to remove clots from blood vessels in the brain, thereby re-establishing blood flow, via a minimally invasive procedure. Among the requirements were that Essentia offer 24-7 stroke care.

The certification adds another layer of security for people throughout the Northland, who no longer have to travel to the Twin Cities — losing precious minutes along the way. In some instances, such a delay could quite literally be a matter of life and death.

“By providing the service right here in their backyard, and being centrally located in Duluth, we are able to help these patients. They will be able to enjoy their independence with their families instead of ending up in a nursing home,” Dr. Jadhav said. D

Louie St. George III is a media relations specialist at Essentia Health. He wrote this for The Woman Today.

As the service advisor at Duke Boys, Rita Anderson has a working knowledge of parts and estimates and often calls the customers to explain what the mechanic found with their vehicle. She’s a race car driver in her spare time.