Watch the video above to see how the St. Michael’s teams work together to provide urgent stroke care.
Code Stroke: Follow the journey of a stroke patient at St. Michael’s Hospital
STORY BY MARLENE LEUNG
PHOTOGRAPHY AND VIDEOGRAPHY BY KATIE COOPER
Stroke is an urgent, time-sensitive medical emergency where there is poor blood flow to parts of the brain, causing damage to the brain cells. The faster a stroke patient receives medical care and intervention, the better chance they have at recovering.
St. Michael’s Hospital is the Regional Stroke Centre for the South-East Toronto Stroke Network. St. Michael’s has become a leader in providing emergency management of stroke, specialized inpatient acute stroke unit care, and urgent and non-urgent secondary stroke prevention services and follow up.
The St. Michael’s Stroke Program has among the fastest median door-to-needle and door-to-puncture times in the province, which are two key quality metrics tracked by Ontario Health to measure how quickly teams provide life-saving stroke interventions, because every minute counts.
Door-to-needle time measures how long it takes from the moment a patient arrives in the Emergency Department to when they receive a clot-busting drug that can restore blood flow to the brain. Door-to-puncture time measures how long it takes from hospital arrival to when the stroke team begins a clot-removal surgery, where a specialist removes the blockage directly from the blood vessel.
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These kinds of stroke treatments require many different clinical teams to work together quickly. They include local paramedics, the emergency department team, stroke neurology, medical imaging, interventional radiology, critical care and rehabilitation. This collaboration leads to life-saving patient care for all who come through our doors.
Producers: Julianne Cavanagh, Lee Barratt, Marlene Leung and Katie Cooper
Special thanks to: Paramedics, Jade Vyfhuis, Sadie Norman-McClure, Dr. Alexandra Muccilli, Alison Morton, Nirujah Kesavan, Lee Barratt, Lu Liu, Dr. Jose Danilo Diestro, Dr. Rodrigo Rodrigues, and Raynard Seng.