One month after his stroke, Omar returns to the ward to thank the doctors

CREMONA – For Omar53 years old, technical worker, theA stroke was the last comment. «It is strange how everything in life can change instantly, on an ordinary Friday morning”, he explains emotionally. Hardly a month has passed since that day and it is not easy to find what happened. «I remember I thought it was ten o’clock, I was in the office, as I always was sitting at my desk, calm. I reached out to grab a document and I fell off my chair». The sudden look scared colleagues: they will immediately understand that it is a bad thing and they say 112, “I heard their voices but I could not move or speak.”

The awakening and the awareness of the life saved

Omar’s memory is interrupted for a few hours; At thirteen he wakes up in a bed in the Cremona Neurology Stroke Unit, but he doesn’t know why. The doctors tell him not to try not to close his eyes and he tries. Awareness will come the next day when he asks a nurse what happened? «He had a stroke. It feels like rising?» «I counted to ten and found myself standing».

«Today I can say that I feel good. I will never stop thanking my colleagues, the Red Cross volunteers, the doctors and nurses at the Cremona hospital: I realized that the sum of everyone’s actions saved my life».

Being back in the ward on World Stroke Day is meant to be a sign of gratitude and hope, «I really appreciated the ability of the health workers to interveneexplain to me what was happening and stay by my side and my wife Mariagrazia in such a difficult time, it was not obvious» – finish Omar.

«Almost two thousand neurons are lost every minute», ACT quickly

« Every minute that passes from the moment of the acute event 1,900 thousand neurons are lost – explains Alessia Giossi (neurologist referred to the Stoke Unit in Cremona). The time factor is fundamental and Omar’s story confirms it.” The patient arrived at the hospital from a village in the Lodi region with recognizable symptoms: a crooked mouth, he did not speak and did not move the left side of his body. «His condition was very bad. The CT scan immediately identified the complication: two blocked vessels, a dissection in the carotid artery and an embolus in the right middle cerebral artery. The neuroradiology team – led by Claudia Ambrosi – performed a thrombectomy, removing the vessels and inserting a carotid stent to restore blood flow.

Password: “stroke code”

Il Code Hits it is a kind of password, a key that opens the doors to the patient and guarantees the implementation of a favorable sequence within the hospital: «What needs to be done is done immediately – adds Giossi -. Areu health workers call the hospital in advance from the area, so even the ambulance transport time prepares for act quickly».

It’s true, together we are stronger than Stroke because I am the one who implemented the Stroke Code several specialists and nurses: «with 112 employees (Areu) and the emergency room, to operators of neurology, neuroradiology, anesthesia and physiotherapy”. A consolidated multidisciplinary track that sees Neurology led by Stefano Gipponi information center for southern Lombardy. “It is not always necessary to go to thrombectomy surgery – adds Giossi. Generally, as soon as the patient arrives at the hospital, we proceed with thrombolysis, ie the injection into a vein of a drug that dissolves the thrombus. Every year around 60 patients are treated in Cremona with this method».

IN ITALY, it affects 185 thousand people every year

There is a stroke a sudden eventcan be prevented through a right way of lifenourishment, movement. High blood pressure, obesity, diabetes, smoking and alcohol abuse are among the main ones. risk factorsbut there may also be a genetic predisposition. Every year in In Italy stroke affects more than 185 thousand people80% are new cases while the rest are recurrences.