It happens something like this.
You’re talking with friends at dinner when your spouse asks why you’re slurring your speech.
Maybe pain is the herald, a crushing migraine or a starburst in the back of the head.
Maybe you’re alone.
Or, worst of all, driving on the highway.
It was a bluebird day in Houston.
Bailey was breezing south toward Galveston on a courtesy call to a valued client.
There are no exact words for what happens next.
Darkness, dizziness, the world withdrawing, inputs going dead.
When the Benz finally comes to rest, Bailey knows the danger still hasn’t passed.
Even so, there is nothing he can do.
Because the violence is still taking place inside his head.
It is among the most feared medical emergencies.
What else buta strokecould make you think you’d rather have a heart attack?
With strokes there is no such assurance.
This is not the vantage from which to sit back and reflect on one’s life accomplishments.
The comparison withheart attacksis not incidental.
More than 1,000 drugs have been testedmostly to no avail.
The lack of progress has led researchers to explore offbeat solutions.
Brain cooling, transcranial magnetic stimulation, lasers delivered through the nose.
Drugs derived from peach pits and the venom of the Malayan pit viper.
It was diagnose and adios, as the saying went.
Nothing to be done.
Stroke is a story of anguish and frustration.
This has led some people to look for other solutions.
One day it might preserve your life.
Gulf Freeway near Exit 26.
The elevator ride is a killer.
Rudy Perez, the paramedic, takes the wheel of the truck.
The mobile stroke unit (MSU) is a specialized ambulance equipped with a portable CT scanner.
Rather than take stroke patients to a hospital, the idea is to take the hospital to the patients.
With a stroke, those minutes matter.
Brain tissue dies fast.
For every 30-minute delay the relative likelihood of surviving a stroke with no deficits decreases by 15 percent.
The key is the CT scanner, a doughnut-shaped X-ray machine capable of rendering 3D images of the brain.
The scanner determines the kind of stroke the patient is having hemorrhagic or ischemic.
An ischemic stroke is triggered by ablood clotthat cuts off blood flow to the brain.
When given for a hemorrhagic stroke, it can be fatal.
Historically, CT scans were available only in hospitals.
But with the MSU, scans can be done virtually anywhere.
The first U.S.-based MSU debuted in 2014, right here in Houston, under Grotta’s direction.
This tells you something about how frustrating strokes can be and how impatient doctors are for solutions.
Few know more about the frustration than Grotta.
Fewer still deserve more credit for the progress that’s been made.
Because Grotta was there from the very beginning.
For him, the story began with a stray remark over an operating table in northern Israel, 1971.
Jim Grotta was on an elective surgery rotation in Safed, just east of the Golan Heights.
Daniel Rice, his mentor at the time, asked.
you’re able to’t treat neurological diseases."
Rice was a military surgeon, and he treated nearly everything.
Rice was a dynamic guy.
Grotta liked that about him.
What’s more, what Rice said about neurology was hard to deny.
People regarded the brain as this intimidatingly complex, quasi-mystical organ, one resistant to real treatment.
Within five years the advent of CT scanning began to suggest that he might be right.
The area around the infarct the penumbra could survive for several hours.
The implications were huge.
The next step was to figure out exactly what that effective intervention might be.
It took two decades, but Grotta helped make a viable response to strokes finally happen.
It remains the highlight of his career.
But Grotta is far from done.
Tuesday at 10:15 a.m. is not a bad time to have a stroke; traffic is light.
Monday mornings can be rough, ditto Friday afternoons, and heaven help you if there’s road construction.
