Patient Spotlight: Bethany Miller
Expert Medical Staffs & Robotic Technology Help Indiana Teen Overcome Stroke
During the evening of January 10, 2011, many of Bethany Miller’s classmates were starting on their homework, watching television or maybe just hanging out with friends – in other words, living the normal teenager life.
Bethany’s evening was anything but typical.
Shortly after arriving home from basketball practice, the freshman at Heritage Hills High School in Lincoln City, Indiana began to feel strange.
“I felt weak and lost mobility in the left side of my body,” said Miller. “I wasn’t sure what was happening, but I wasn’t really in any pain so I didn’t think anything was wrong.”
Bethany unsuccessfully communicated what she was experiencing with her sister and grandmother; her slurred speech made it difficult to explain what was happening.
Fortunately, Bethany’s step-father, Skip, was home at the time. Having heard the symptoms of a stroke previously, Skip knew exactly what was going on and called 911 immediately.
Bethany was taken to her local hospital, Memorial Hospital and Health Care Center (MHHCC) in Jasper, Indiana. What she and her family did not know is that just a few months earlier, MHHCC and University of Louisville Hospital became partners in a telemedicine program designed to improve stroke care in southwestern Kentucky, and most recently, Southern Indiana.
Inside the Emergency Department at MHHCC, the physicians and nurses determined she was indeed having a stroke. In most cases, when someone arrives to an Emergency Department this quickly (within 3 hours of the first symptom) and the stroke is caused by a blood clot in the brain (ischemic stroke), that person would be an ideal candidate for the only drug approved by the Food & Drug Administration to treat an ischemic stroke – tissue plasminogen activator (tPA).
However, tPA, which breaks up blood clots, is not typically used in patient’s this young. Needing to get a stroke neurologist’s expert opinion, MHHCC contacted Dr. Alex Abou-Chebl, Interventional Neurologist at University of Louisville Hospital.
Using the robot located inside MHHCC’s Emergency Department, Dr. Abou-Chebl drove to Bethany’s bedside and consulted with her and her family via a two-way audio/video feed.
“He told us that we really didn’t have time to think about whether or not she should get tPA,” said Mary Miller, Bethany’s mother. “He told us over a million brain cells die each minute of a stroke.”
The medical staff at MHHCC administered tPA, but Dr. Abou-Chebl wanted Bethany transported to University of Louisville Hospital via helicopter just in case the tPA didn’t work and she needed the highest level of stroke care. Dr. Abou-Chebl is one of a small number of Interventional Neurologists in the country who use catheters to access vessels in the brain to manually remove blood clots.
But by the time Bethany arrived to Louisville, her outlook improved tremendously and no advanced treatments were needed.
Today, Bethany is back to living the life of a typical teenager – sort of. She is an honor student at Heritage Hills High School and has set a path for medical school after high school and college. Despite Dr. Abou-Chebl’s plea to pursue neurology, Bethany wants to be a surgeon one day.
“I never dreamt I would have a stroke at 15, but I am so thankful for the medical teams at Memorial Hospital and University of Louisville Hospital,” Bethany said. “They recognized my symptoms quickly so that I could get the treatment I needed. As I’ve learned, time saved is brain saved.”
Signs and symptoms of a stroke:
- Sudden weakness or numbness of the face, arm, or leg-especially along one side of the body
- Sudden confusion
- Sudden dimness or loss of vision, particularly in one eye
- Sudden difficulty speaking or trouble understanding speech
- Sudden severe headache with no known cause
- Unexplained dizziness, unsteadiness, or sudden falls, especially with any of the other signs
Recognizing and responding to these symptoms right away could save a life – maybe even your own. Remember, call 911 immediately if you see anyone experiencing the symptoms above.