Returning home from a camping trip, just minutes from home, Kathy Strong never expected her quick actions would save her husband’s life.
Mike and Kathy Strong took a weekend camping trip In mid-July. Things were going well, the couple spent the morning laughing, joking and packing up for the trip home. The conversation was good on drive and then Mike got quiet. “I didn’t think anything about it because sometimes he gets quiet when he drives,” Kathy Strong said.
At this point they were just a few streets away from their house and Mike turned on 21st Avenue in Longmont. This struck Kathy as unusual because it is a narrow street on which to pull a 40-foot fifth-wheel trailer, she said. As they started to turn the corner, Mike reached toward Kathy and started shaking his hand repeating “weird, weird, weird” several times.
Kathy began looking outside the vehicle for what might be weird before looking at her husband and asking him “What is weird?”
He replied, “me.” Then he began answering her questions in gibberish. Kathy felt as though something was really wrong with her husband and convinced him to pull to the side of the road. She called 911.
By time the ambulance arrived Kathy Strong guessed her husband was having a stroke.
The first responders took Mike Strong to Centura Health-Longmont United Hospital, after identifying he showed symptoms of a stroke.
LUH in October 2018 received advanced certification as a primary stroke center. It is the job of stroke coordinator Rachel Longseth to establish a procedure that helps stroke victims get into the hospital and receiving the care they need as quickly as possible.
“Time is brain,” said Dr. Leslie Armstrong, an emergency room physician. Kathy Strong’s quick thinking and calling 911 allowed her husband to receive alteplase within 45 minutes of the onset of symptoms. This eventually led to Mike Strong avoiding a more invasive procedure in which surgeons remove the clot in the brain.
Alteplase is a tissue plasminogen activator, or TPA, a clot busting medication that is used within three hours of the onset of symptoms of a stroke. Armstrong said studies are being done currently to see if the drug can be administered out to 4.5 hours or even to people who suffer a stroke in their sleep. However, she said, the drug thins blood so there are safety risks involved.
According to Longseth and Armstrong not many people recognize the symptoms of a stroke. Many will identify something is wrong and chalk it up to the individual being tired and needing rest and delay seeking treatment, sometimes for days, Armstrong said. This can lead to irreparable brain damage.
When minutes are crucial to keeping or regaining brain function, emergency protocols for strokes at LUH are implemented quickly. LUH officials recommend patients who suspect they are having a stroke arrive by EMS because those protocols can be implemented while the patient is en route to the hospital.
“When someone calls 911 with a stroke, our EMS personnel are all trained in stroke recognition. They call the hospital as they are driving into the hospital to say ‘Hey, we think we have a stroke (patient) coming.’ We immediately activate our stroke protocol,” Armstrong said.
Those protocols activate a tech who readies the CT scanner, a radiologist to immediately read the image, a pharmacist ready to administer medication and a neurologist to confer with the patient in person or via telehealth. In the case of Mike Strong, EMS activation of the stroke protocol allowed his treatment to be administered within 45 minutes of the onset of symptoms, beating the hospital’s goal to treat within 45 minutes of someone’s arrival.
“When someone arrives by car, it’s more of a clunky process. All of the people get involved but it is not as smooth and quick, often,” Armstrong said.
“As soon as one sign of a stroke presents seconds matter, and there’s no doubt that Kathey’s decision to call 911 as soon as she noticed Mike’s altered speech saved his life,” Armstrong said. “Everyone should know the BE FAST stroke acronym, knowing these signs can be the difference of life and death.”
BE FAST is an acronym to help people to recognize the symptoms of a stroke:
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Balance — Watch for a sudden loss of coordination or balance.
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Eyes — Is there a sudden loss of vision in one or both eyes? Or double vision?
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Face — Ask the person to smile and check to see if one side of the face droops.
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Arm — Ask the person to raise both arms and see if one arm drifts downward.
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Speech — Ask the person to repeat a simple sentence and check to see if words are slurred or the sentence is repeated incorrectly.
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Time — If a person shows any of these symptoms, it is important to immediately call 911, and get to the hospital as quickly as possible.
When LUH gained certification as a stroke center, Longseth began an internal program that recognizes hospital staff who go above and beyond in helping to identify and treat stroke victims. The program awards these people with “brain pins.”
Since its inception in November 2017, few have received the recognition but all who have were staff at LUH. After witnessing the quick actions of Kathy Strong, Armstrong nominated her as the first community member to receive a brain pin.
Strong is set to receive her brain pin Friday in a ceremony at McCaddon Cadillac Buick GMC, where she works. The time of the ceremony had not been set as of publication.
“She recognized it right away and activated EMS right away, where we see often in the community, people often wait to see if things get better or delay care. The fact that she acted right away and ultimately made a big impact in the care we were able to provide,” Armstrong said of why she nominated Strong for the award.
“I hope that it helps with educating the community. I don’t know where or how she will display her pin, but hopefully people will see that and ask about it,” Longseth said.
Mike Strong was released from the hospital the day after his stroke, Kathy Strong said. He is expected to need some speech therapy but otherwise make a full recovery.
