Duke Raleigh Hospital is one of a handful in NC that offers lifesaving thrombectomy for stroke. Dara Damery got transferred there from Wilmington just in time.
Damery was in the throes of a serious ischemic stroke. That’s when blood flow to the brain is disrupted due to a clot within a blood vessel. Without oxygen-rich blood, brain cells rapidly begin to die, which can lead to severe disability or death. The episode near the beach earlier that day had been a transient ischemic attack (TIA), sometimes called a mini-stroke or warning stroke, which can occur before a full stroke.
When she arrived at the local hospital, Damery couldn’t speak clearly or move her left side. A CT scan revealed a large clot blocking the main artery on the right side of her brain. Emergency room doctors gave her the clot-buster drug tPA.
When that didn’t work, said Damery, “They told me about this procedure where they could go in through my groin and pull the clot out of my brain.”
Called a thrombectomy, it’s currently only performed at a handful of hospitals in North Carolina, including Duke University Hospital and Duke Raleigh Hospital. To be effective, thrombectomy must be performed within six hours after stroke symptoms appear.