During the COVID-19 pandemic, there has been a sharp decline nationwide in people seeking care for heart conditions and stroke in particular. These conditions do not get better on their own and emergency care should not be delayed. According to UConn Health\u2019s stroke experts \u201cTime is Brain\u201d.<\/p>\n
According to Dr. Mason Leeman-Markowski, a neurologist at UConn Health<\/a>, the time\u00a0interval from the onset of stroke symptoms to the time\u00a0of treatment is one of the most important factors influencing stroke outcome. The brain does not start to die immediately after an artery is blocked. This\u00a0process is more prolonged, and in favorable situation takes\u00a0several hours. During these several hours everyone needs to act quickly and decisively. With every passing minute, there is additional\u00a0and cumulative neuronal loss. The sooner a successful reperfusion therapy is implemented to restore proper blood flow to the brain, the smaller will be the final neurological deficit.<\/p>\n \u201cIf\u00a0a patient\u00a0or\u00a0patient’s family\u00a0notice symptoms reminiscent of a stroke,\u00a0the best thing to do is to place a 911 call. I would discourage\u00a0patients or family members from\u00a0calling friends, other family members,\u00a0waiting for an answer from their primary care physician, etc.\u00a0A 911\u00a0call is the\u00a0best thing to do,\u201d says Leeman-Markowski.<\/p>\n Dave, a recent stroke patient at UConn John Dempsey Hospital, stresses that advice too. One Monday afternoon as he took a phone call at his home he became extremely dizzy. \u201cIt felt like the room was spinning,\u201d he says. He fell to the ground and instructed the person on the phone to call 911.<\/p>\n Dave, 56, from Simsbury, had no known stroke risk factors. He is very active walking daily, playing hockey several \u00a0times a week and racing sailboats. He\u2019s generally a healthy individual and had no warning signs that anything was wrong.<\/p>\n EMS\u2019 advanced notification from Dave\u2019s home to the UConn John Dempsey Hospital\u2019s Emergency Department where there is a dedicated Stroke Center<\/a> activated the hospital\u2019s swift stroke team\u2019s response that whisked him from the ambulance directly to CT scan machine in the ED.\u00a0That system works so that patients, like Dave, can rapidly receive TPA (a time-sensitive blood-thinning medication that helps reverse stroke) well below or within the \u201cgolden hour\u201d care window.<\/p>\n