Teamwork with Rogers Stroke Center helps Vietnam memorial caretaker avoid lasting effects from stroke

Ellie Raj and Mary Alice Stam
An alert friend, Ellie Raj (left), called 911 after realizing that her friend Mary Alice Stam was having a stroke. Mrs. Stam was treated with an innovative new procedure by physicians with UT Southwestern’s Robert D. Rogers Advanced Comprehensive Stroke Center.

DALLAS – May 11, 2015 – An alert friend, a 24/7 phone consultation service tapping UT Southwestern Medical Center stroke experts, and an innovative procedure to restore blood flow to her brain helped spare Mary Alice Stam the lasting effects of severe stroke.

Mrs. Stam already was experiencing some classic stroke symptoms − slurred speech, dwindling eyesight, and inability to move her left side – by the time she was arriving at UT Southwestern’s Robert D. Rogers Advanced Comprehensive Stroke Center for the stenting procedure, which deploys a mesh tube through the arteries to ensnare the blood clot from the brain and then removes it.

Dr. Mark Alberts
Dr. Mark Alberts

“With stroke, time equals brain,” said vascular neurologist Dr. Mark J. Alberts, Professor and Vice Chair of Clinical Affairs of Neurology and Neurotherapeutics at UT Southwestern. “We call it the ‘Golden Three Hours.’ If we can get to the patient early in the stroke, we have a vastly improved chance of making a difference.”

A recent study in the New England Journal of Medicine showed that the procedure − called endovascular rescue therapy (ERT) – when performed quickly within the first six hours can help stroke patients recover and avoid future disability. In the study, about a third of patients recovered with no or only minor disability.

Today, Ms. Stam, 77, remains cognitively alert and is able to walk.

“They say I’m a rock star,” she said. “I’m sure glad to be here.”

Ms. Stam’s ordeal began as she was alone tending to a memorial to Vietnam veterans at Sparger Park in Colleyville, near Dallas, which she and her husband sponsor and care for regularly. That day, she was in the park by herself when a longtime friend, Ellie Raj, happened along.

“I was walking through the park and I stopped to chat with Mary Alice,” Mrs. Raj recalled. “I noticed some of what she was talking about was garbled.”

As a retired professor of nursing who worked in pediatrics, psychiatry, and oncology, Ms. Stam was familiar with the signs of stroke, but didn’t realized they were happening to her. Fortunately, her friend did. When Mrs. Raj encouraged her to sit and began helping Mrs. Stam take off her gardening gloves, Mrs. Raj noticed her friend didn’t have the strength to extend the fingers of her left hand. She immediately dialed 911 − a critical call that set off the subsequent chain reaction of team-based care instrumental to sparing her potential lasting effects of the stroke.

Paramedics rushed Mrs. Stam to a nearby hospital in Grapevine, where doctors performed a CT scan on her head, then called UT Southwestern’s stroke hotline, established as part of its joint certification by The Joint Commission and American Heart Association/American Stroke Association as a Comprehensive Stroke Center, a distinction for hospitals fostering specialized stroke care and expertise for patients. UT Southwestern University Hospital has the only AHA/ASA/Joint Commission-certified comprehensive stroke center in North Texas.

UT Southwestern’s multidisciplinary cerebrovascular program brings together neurologists, neuroradiologists and neurosurgeons with vascular, endovascular and critical-care expertise to treat all forms of stroke and blood-vessel disease affecting the brain and spinal cord. This includes referrals, both acute and subacute, for complex cases throughout Texas and the surrounding five-state area. The certification requires that the hospital provide ready access to the technology and medications that can limit damage during or after a stroke. A 2010 study in the journal Stroke found that stroke centers following national guidelines recorded fewer fatalities and reduced institutional care a year later compared with general hospitals; had lower mortality rates during a nine-year follow-up; and increased median survival rates.

Mrs. Stam was brought to UT Southwestern’s Robert D. Rogers Advanced Comprehensive Stroke Center, where she was greeted by the stroke team including Dr. Alberts, who had the initial phone consultation, interventional neuroradiologist Dr. Lee Pride, Professor of Radiology and Neurological Surgery, and Amanda Dirickson, a specially trained, advanced practice stroke nurse.

Neurosurgeons began the ERT procedure in about half an hour from the time Mrs. Stam arrived at UT Southwestern.

“It was a great team effort,” said Dr. Alberts, who was integral in developing national criteria for primary and comprehensive stroke centers. “The fast actions of her friends and family, and the Grapevine professionals in getting her here quickly, as well as the speed and efficiency of our team here at Zale Lipshy University Hospital gave her the best chance of having a good recovery and resuming her active and fulfilling life-style.”

For the ERT procedure, Dr. Pride inserted a catheter into Mrs. Stam’s femoral artery in the thigh, reaching up by the heart and into the middle cerebral artery of the brain where the clot was blocking blood flow. Extending a wire mesh stent into the artery, they were able to pull out the clot and restore blood flow.

“If there’s one thing I could tell people who face a stroke, it’s to take action,” Ms. Stam said. “You might think you feel fine, but listen to those around you, and get examined by stroke experts.”

About UT Southwestern Medical Center

UT Southwestern, one of the premier academic medical centers in the nation, integrates pioneering biomedical research with exceptional clinical care and education. The institution’s faculty includes many distinguished members, including six who have been awarded Nobel Prizes since 1985. The faculty of more than 2,700 is responsible for groundbreaking medical advances and is committed to translating science-driven research quickly to new clinical treatments. UT Southwestern physicians provide medical care in 40 specialties to about 92,000 hospitalized patients and oversee approximately 2.1 million outpatient visits a year.

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Media Contact: Gregg Shields
214-648-3404
gregg.shields@utsouthwestern.edu 

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5 Warning Signs of Stroke

  • Sudden numbness or weakness of face, arm or leg, especially on one side of the body
  • Sudden confusion, trouble speaking or understanding
  • Sudden trouble seeing in one of both eyes
  • Sudden trouble walking, dizziness, loss of balance or coordination
  • Sudden severe headache with no known cause

If you suspect you or someone you are with is experiencing a stroke, call 911 immediately.