Girl 'brought back to life' by revolutionary new stroke treatment at London hospital

The procedure is a breakthrough for stroke patients
Valery Sharifulin/ Getty Images
Ross Lydall @RossLydall20 October 2016

Critically ill patients left paralysed by strokes are being “brought back to life” on the operating table by a ground-breaking rapid-response treatment at a London hospital.

Doctors revealed to the Standard that people left unconscious or unable to speak or move by major strokes are making dramatic — sometimes almost instant — recoveries due to the first 24/7 UK centre offering a revolutionary procedure.

Experts say that getting the time-critical treatment within hours after a stroke can be the difference between a full recovery and serious disability or even death.

A girl of 17 was the first to receive the new “gold standard” out-of-hours care at St George’s Hospital, Tooting, after being rushed late at night from Surrey when conventional clot-busting drugs failed to work.

She was unable to speak or move one side of her body — but suddenly recovered on the operating table when doctors fed a 3ft-long catheter wire through her groin to “fish out” life-threatening blood clots in her brain.

Consultant neurologist Dr Bhavini Patel said: “The whole of her right side had no power. She was mute.

"As soon as the doctors pulled the wire out, that was it. She was speaking again. I went in to see her and she said, ‘Oh, I can move my leg. I can move my arm. I can speak.’

"She went home the next day. This was the week before her 18th birthday.”

Dr Joe Leyon, the interventional neuroradiologist who performed the procedure, said: “It’s devastating for patients to find one moment they’re completely paralysed and/or have lost speech.

“It’s fair to say they have been brought back to life when they get these functions back in a moment.”

The procedure, mechanical thrombectomy, is especially useful in patients with the most severe forms of stroke, including the 10 per cent who fail to respond to clot-busting drugs. These are most at risk of disability or death.

The procedure became an established part of the stroke service at St George’s last year after medical research found it more than doubled some patients’ chances of surviving without serious disability.

Three months ago the hospital, which features in Channel 4 series 24 Hours In A&E, became the UK’s first to offer the procedure round the clock.

Patients are now being rushed from across London and the Home Counties, some by air ambulance, to undergo the procedure to restore blood flow to the damaged part of their brain.

Metal wires barely the breadth of a hair are manoeuvred into the brain and the clot is removed, either by suction or after being trapped in a mesh “basket” and pulled out via veins. Doctors say the procedure lifts St George’s acute stroke care from “Premier League to Champions League” status.

Numbers of thrombectomy patients are expected to soar from the current three or four a week as word spreads of its success.

The best outcomes are for patients whose treatment begins within five hours of a stroke. The oldest so far has been aged 90.

Dr Patel said: “If we get them early and they were medically well before, we can make a big difference to them.”

St George’s already treats 1,200 stroke patients a year, as one of London’s eight hyper acute stroke units. These units, set up in 2010, saved 400 lives in their first three years.

Dr Leyon said: “Clot-busting medication is highly likely to fail if the clot is big. The best way to treat these patients is physically to get the clot out.

Teresa Bruce said the treatment got her back to '99 per cent'

“What all the studies have shown is that the patient is much more likely to be functionally independent after 90 days if they have this treatment.”

'It saved my life'

One patient to receive the new type of emergency stroke treatment at St George’s hospital today told how she regained consciousness and began talking within minutes of it being completed.

Teresa Bruce, 67, from Woking, said she was able to go home within two days after undergoing a mechanical thrombectomy to remove three blood clots in her brain. “I just think it’s fantastic,” she said.

“I wouldn’t be here otherwise. It [the stroke] was out of the blue. There was nothing to show why I had a stroke.

“I’m virtually back to 100 per cent. I’m 99 per cent.”

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