World first: London doctor uses new device to quickly aid stroke patient
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Wilene Leyen feels like she’s been given a second chance in life.
On June 24, the 59-year-old woman suffered a stroke that could’ve altered or ended her life.
Instead, Leyen become the first person in the world to have the blood clot causing her stroke removed by London doctors using a new type of catheter being touted as a game-changer in the treatment of strokes.
“Wouldn’t you call it a second chance, being able to talk and walk?” she said. “A lot of people who suffer strokes don’t have what I have now.”
Much of what happened to Leyen remains a blur to her.
Leyen said she was pressure-washing her home’s deck when she decided to take a break and sit on her couch. The next thing she knew, she was on the ground.
“I couldn’t move, I couldn’t get back up,” Leyen said.
Even in that state, Leyen managed to call her son and tell him what was happening. He called 911 and Leyen was taken to a hospital in Goderich. There, she was told she was having a stroke and was taken to University Hospital, one of Ontario’s regional stroke centres, to have a blood clot removed from the left side of her brain.
The technique of going into the blood vessels and removing blood clots, known as thrombectomy, has been used since the late 1990s.
As part of the procedure, doctors make a small incision, usually over the right hip, and thread a catheter through the artery until they locate and remove the blood clot.
What was new in Leyen’s case was the type of catheter used to get rid of the blood clot. It combines several features from other catheters, improving the effectiveness of the procedure, said Michael Mayich, the neuroradiologist at London Health Sciences Centre who treated Leyen.
The new catheter, for instance, has a special tip doctors can see through X-ray machines, allowing them to navigate a patient’s circulatory system. It also has a “balloon” at the end that is used to stop the flow of blood in the blood vessels and it can suction blood clots on its own.
More importantly, the new device allows doctors to reduce the time it takes to remove the blood clot from an average of 20 to 30 minutes down to about 10, which could have a significant impact on patients, Mayich said.
“With a stroke, the damage happens very fast,” he said. “Each minute, you can lose about two million brain cells, so every minute counts.
“So, the promise is that (this device) can shorten the amount of time for the procedure . . . so it can translate into better outcomes for patients.”
Studies are underway to quantify exactly how much benefit stroke patients derive from the shorter procedure, but Mayich is optimistic the new device will prove to be a game changer.
“We do know from past research that faster procedures and more complete opening of those vessels means better outcomes,” he said. “So, we can infer (the results) but at this point, we don’t necessarily know that.”
Leyen, for her part, needs no other proof than looking at herself in the mirror.
“I feel very blessed, very thankful, very amazed,” she said.
“I can say nothing but thanks to the doctors, the nurses and all the people who helped look after me.”
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