The American Heart/American Stroke Association presented Ellis Hospital with the Sustained Performance Achievement Award for Stroke on Thursday, Dec. 11. It is the only hospital in the Capital District to earn the recognition two years in a row.
We’re honored by the national recognition and we’re very proud of our Stroke Team. Achieving this award in 2007 was exceptional. Sustaining it for 2008 is outstanding. We hope this recognition means just as much to our stroke patients who get back to their lives and the people they love because of the exceptional care they receive at Ellis, said James Connolly, CEO of Ellis Hospital.
The award recognizes Ellis Hospital’s commitment to providing quality care by consistently meeting or exceeding the American Heart Association’s guidelines for stroke care. It was the first hospital in New York to win the gold medal in 2007.
`We’re proud of getting this award for two years. However, we will not stop here,` said Dr. Kejian Tang, who works for the Ellis Hospital’s Stroke Center.
`We will continue to find ways to improve and find even better stoke care for our patients,` said Tang.
According to the American Heart/American Stroke Association, strokes are the third leading cause of death in America and the No. 1 cause of adult disability.
Ellis Hospital’s Stroke Center has neurosurgeons and neuroradiologists on staff who are able to do everything from brain-imaging scans to administering and performing advanced clot-busting medications and procedures. Nearly 5,000 patients have been treated at the center since its inception in 1996.
According to the American Stroke Association, nationally about 700 people suffer from stroke; 500,000 are first attacks and 200,000 are recurrent. Of stroke survivors, 22 percent of men and 25 percent of women die within a year, and for those age 65 and older, the percentage is even higher.
Eileen Schoch, of Glenville, suffered a stroke in April 2003 at the age of 52.
`One of the things that happens when you have a stroke is that memory is affected,` said Scotch, who was treated for her stroke at Ellis Hospital’s Stroke Center. `I suspect that some of the medications that they had me on had less of a memory retentive, which is a good thing, because there are aspects that you don’t want to remember.`
Scotch, who led an active lifestyle, suffered from her stroke while she was out cleaning up her yard after taking her daily walk post-breakfast.
`My leg started acting funny, and I tried to step and I said, ‘I think I’m having a stroke!’` said Scotch.
However, she didn’t completely believe it. She kept working until her entire left leg was numb and she could barely hold her cup of coffee in her left hand. Knowing that nobody would find her in her garden for hours, she made her way to the front of her house where she `just sat there and started saying nonsense things` so that she could keep herself conscious while she listened for her neighbor to leave for work and call him for help.
He came to her rescue and called 911, where she was taken first to St. Claire’s and then to Ellis Hospital, where they were better equipped to handle the kind of stroke Scotch was having.
`I had a hemorrhagic stroke. I had one of the more dramatic ones; 20 percent of stroke victims have a hemorrhagic stroke and of them only 10 percent or less survive. I am recovered in speech and attitude but the whole left side of my body is paralyzed,` said Scotch.
According to the Mayo Clinic, a hemorrahagic stroke is caused by a blood vessel in the brain that breaks and bleeds into the brain. The cells nourished by the ruptured artery no longer receive oxygen and nutrients begin to die. Simultaneously, the blood that’s accumulated begins to clot, pushing on normal brain tissue. The result is disrupted brain function.
`I won’t allow myself to believe that so I keep walking. I wear a leg brace that goes halfway up my thigh and I have some motor skills with my left hand, but I can’t perform motor skills like picking up small things or holding things.
I have to look at [the object] and watch it. Otherwise I drop it,` said Scotch.
She’s paralyzed on the entire left side of her body, but she works every day to regain physical abilities that she lost.
`I won’t recognize it, and [a big part of] survival is a lot of attitude, and I look at it this way: I was on death’s door and I was brought back for a reason and I’ve got a mouth, so I talk,` said Scotch.
While Schoch had a history of stroke in her family, she said she ignored it. She was kept at Ellis Hospital for five days and then put into rehab at Sunnyview Rehabilitation Hospital, where she spent two more weeks until she was ready to go home.
She is actively involved in the stroke support group, which was started through Ellis Hospital in 2006 and continues her recovery process daily.
There are several factors that can put you at a higher risk for stroke, according to Tang.
`Smoking is a risk factor, obesity is a risk factor, and secondhand smoking [is a risk factor]. Heavy alcohol intake is a risk factor and people with irregular heartbeat,` said Tang. `Those are very strong risk factors of stroke so those are controllable; those can be modified. Risk factors are not able to be modified include age; you can’t become younger.`
Gender is another risk factor that can’t be modified. Males are more prone to strokes than females.
For more information on stroke care and prevention, visit www.ellishospital.org or www.americanstrokeassociation.org.“