When it comes to stroke the saying is time is brain.
It means the longer a brain is starved of oxygen-rich blood because of a stroke - the more brain function will be lost.
Neurologist Dr. Eric Smith said “every minute the brain isn't getting blood flow more brain cells are dying off.”
With that in mind, Emergency Medical Services crews in Calgary and the stroke team at the Foothills Hospital are trying to reduce the time it takes for stroke patients to start receiving diagnosis and treatment.
EMS crews and the stroke team have been practicing a new protocol in which EMS skips stopping at the triage desk at the emergency department, in fact skips the emergency department entirely and takes the patient directly to the stroke team.
Dr. Smith said “we could shave off as many as 15 minutes. If we do that, we can save a few people from being disabled after a stroke.”
Fifteen minutes is a long time for a stroke patient, because as Dr. Smith said “every minute counts.”
Bypassing the emergency department means that the patient stays with the EMS crew on their EMS stretcher and using EMS monitors. Changing a patient from one stretcher to another and changing monitors can take some time.
Stuart Brideaux from EMS said “although we can do this quickly there can be some time lost when we are changing over equipment, changing over beds and waiting for certain things to take place.”
EMS and the stroke team are practicing the new protocol using actors as patients.
Brideaux said using actors works better than using mannequins because the actors add a sense of urgency and reality to the drill, “this is as real as we can create it without actually having a patient having a stroke fortunately and that way everyone can get on board with a greater training experience.”
The new stroke patient protocol is still be fine-tuned, but recent practice drills demonstrate it could save time and therefore save lives and prevent brain damage.
According the Canadian Heart and Stroke Foundation a stroke happens every ten minutes in Canada.
