Key points from today’s guests:
Christopher Schwab, stroke survivor
- On a cross country flight back to his Seattle home, Christopher felt some numbness in his face and when he stood up to get some water, he collapsed in the airplane aisle.
- He had no idea he was having a stroke, but fortunately there were two doctors on the plane who realized the plane needed to divert to the closest airport to get him immediate medical care.
- The plane could not land in St. Louis, so pilots diverted to Kansas City, where there is one of the most specialized centers in the country to care for this type of situation with the highest certification for stroke management.
- Because of the quick actions by everyone to get him to The University of Kansas Health System, the clot was removed and he is on the road to recovery.
- He is already back to exercising and cites a healthy lifestyle as an important factor in his rehab.
Edie Schwab, Christopher’s wife
- Edie was surprised to hear that Christopher had a stroke because he had just run a 5K earlier and was in good health.
- By the time she was able to get to him in Kansas City from Seattle, the surgery was completed and he was in recovery.
- Not knowing anything about the hospital or medical team was scary, but she was so pleased with the coordination and care she and Christopher received, especially as people from out of state.
Dr. Koji Ebersole, neurosurgeon, director, endovascular neurosurgery, The University of Kansas Health System
- There was a large blood clot that had obstructed the major blood vessel in Christopher’s brain.
- The clot, about the diameter of a strand of spaghetti and about two inches long, was extracted to restore blood flow to Christopher’s brain, giving him a better opportunity to recover.
- Stroke is definitely a disease process that's related to chronic conditions. Most of the time, things that take decades to add up -- cholesterol, diabetes, years of smoking -- those things tend to be affecting the older population. But young people can still have strokes and it can be life changing.
- I think the timeliness of everybody's action for Christopher's story is what made it a positive outcome. If that flight had continued onto Seattle, the absence of the blood supply to the brain would have led to irreversible injury, which could have included partial paralysis.
- Follow BE FAST to identify the signs of a stroke:
- B – Balance
- E – Eyes
- F – Face
- A – Arm
- S – Speech
- T – Time to call 911
Dr. Dana Hawkinson, medical director of infection & prevention control, The University of Kansas Health System
- The COVID inpatient count is at 19, a slight increase from 17 last week.
- A science study published a year ago found that when there's a decrease in temperature within nasal cells, some of those protective components that they secrete to help protect us against a viral infection are affected.
- What they found is that colder temperatures did, in fact, reduce or mitigate or modify some of those protective protections and factors that were released from the nasal tissue cell.
Wednesday, December 6 at 8 a.m. is the next Open Mics with Dr. Stites. How accurately can science predict who will get dementia? On the next Open Mics with Dr. Stites, we’ll show you the science behind the blurry line between normal aging and cognitive impairment.
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