VOL. 69 NO. 36
66 YEARS OF SERVING THE COMMUNITY
WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 7, 2016
Stroke ambulance, a marvel in life-saving technology
Joe Machney Reporter About two million brain cells are lost each minute after a stroke, but doctors need to know the type of stroke as well, further exacerbating the situation. A first of its kind, the $3.3 million stroke ambulance, which will be funded by donors to the University Hospital Foundation’s Brain Centre Campaign, will be able to provide stroke care beyond a major urban centre, helping to substantially curb that amount of time and save more brain cells. “The challenge that we’re dealing with is stroke from blocked arteries and to assist with that there is a clotbusting drug that increases the chance of a cure. The difficulty is that you lose two million brain cells a
minute in an acute stroke. If you live within the city close to a primary stroke city either Edmonton or Calgary or a number of rural and small urban primary stroke centre around the province then you’re better off because you’re closer to the clot-busting drugs. The more serious problem is if you live in certain areas and Vegreville is one of them, then you’re really not close to Edmonton or Calgary and you’re not that close to a primary stroke centre,” Dr Tom Jeerakathil, stroke neurologist at the U of A hospital, said. “Before we can get to a patient who has experienced a stroke they’ve lost hundreds of millions of brain cells, because they’ve most likely been waiting
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