Rockford's #1 Stroke Center Gets Even Better
Great stroke care requires a great team, and the stroke treatment team at Rockford’s number one hospital for stroke care now has a new tool to improve the odds for many stroke patients.
OSF HealthCare Saint Anthony Medical Center has invested more than $3 million in building a new angio suite. The suite is dedicated to providing the Rockford region with what recent studies show to be the most effective stroke treatment method - surgical stroke intervention.
Surgical stroke intervention requires the use of a biplane angiograph that provides a 3-D image of the brain so specialists can accurately see the blood clot causing the stroke, enter the brain with a catheter and remove the clot.
The new angio suite will allow OSF Saint Anthony to offer stroke intervention 24 hours a day, every day. Ayman Gheith, MD, and Akram Shhadeh, MD, are the neuro-interventional physicians who will dedicate their talents to improving outcomes for stroke patients in the new angio suite. Together, they have more than eight years of experience performing stroke intervention.
Only days after the suite was operational, 88-year old Mary Lewis was brought to Saint Anthony with signs of a severe stroke. Her daughter, Donna Demarco, opted to have Mary treated immediately by the stroke intervention team that included Dr. Gheith. Within days, Mary's stroke symptoms abated and she had nearly complete recovery upon her discharge.
Dr. Gheith talks about the benfits the angio suite brings to many stroke patients brought under the medical center's care.
Time is vital in determining the outcome of a stroke. Every minute during a stroke, a person loses about two million neurons. People need to know the symptoms of a stroke, so they can recognize it and seek treatment immediately. The symptoms are facial droop, arm weakness and slurring speech.