Wednesday, April 29, 2009 • PARRY SOUND NORTH STAR - 11
‘Golden hour’ stroke drug not available locally
BY EVAN FRENCH
North Star Staff
Millie Graham said the local hospital has some of
the most state-of-the-art equipment in Ontario - with
an impressive 63-slice CT scan machine. But without
a neurologist on staff, she said, stroke victims taken
to the West Parry Sound Health Centre are unable to
receive a potentially life-saving drug.
Amit Furi, senior science officer with the Heart
and Stroke Foundation, said it’s been about 10 to 15
years since Tissue Plasminogen Activator (TPA) was
introduced, and it’s become the mainstay in terms of
stroke treatment.
“It has sort of revolutionized the way we administer
or treat stroke patients,” he said. “The importance of
getting it out is the bigger piece of the puzzle here.”
Graham, who suffered a stroke in 1992, now heads a
local stroke support group, and is a spokesperson for
Ontario’s Heart and Stroke Foundation.
She said the drug is heralded as a “golden hour” stroke
treatment. Patients who are given the drug within a
three-hour window after the stroke begins can often go
home the next day free of symptoms, she said.
“I wanted so desperately for us to have the proper
staff onboard (in Parry Sound) because we have the
very best CAT scan in Ontario,” she said.
“I’m shocked at the number of strokes there are in
this town.”
She said the West Parry Sound Health Centre is wellequipped to identify and treat strokes. Except it doesn’t
have the golden hour drug.
When the new hospital was completed, she said, many
hoped it would be designated as one of Ontario’s regional
stroke centres. But without a qualified neurologist
on the Parry Sound payroll, the designation went to
Huntsville.
“It was a bit of a bummer,” said Graham. “I wanted
to see Parry Sound - with our new facility - be named a
stroke centre for our area. But I’ve been in contact with
the government about the possibility of that happening
in the future... that will never happen now.”
She said they wouldn’t consider designating another
facility so close to Huntsville.
But that doesn’t mean Parry Sound is barred from hiring
a neurologist, and administering the drug on site.
“We’ve got the equipment - we could be doing it,” she
said. “We have to get a neurologist.”
Donald Sanderson, chief executive officer for the West
Parry Sound Health Centre, said he thinks TPA is an
important treatment, and luckily there are four regional
stroke centres nearby - in Sudbury, Barrie, Huntsville,
and North Bay - capable of administering the drug.
He said under normal conditions they’re able to get
residents to those centres in time to have the treatment.
“I think it’s fair to say that it would be desirable,” he
said. “We’re trying to provide care as close to home as
possible.”
He said, at the moment, the health centre is challenged
just to cover the costs of the programs and services they
already provide, and couldn’t consider expanding them,
although “whenever those opportunities exist, we’re
interested in exploring them.”
“Strategically it is something we’re interested in,” he
said. “But we have some significant hurdles to overcome
if we were to be successful.”
Furi said having a neurologist on staff is a must if
Parry Sound is to get the drug.
“In terms of TPA deployment, you probably need
someone like that (a neurologist),” he said. “TPA has
been recognized to reverse the affects of stroke -within
the three-hour window - so it can be imperative to get
someone ... not just to deploy TPA, but also to really
understand stroke and protocols and best practices.”
He said the drug is used to break up clots which starve
the brain of blood.
Although the drug helps those suffering clot-related
strokes, he said it could be potentially deadly for people
suffering cerebral hemorrhages - which is why it’s
necessary to have a CT scan prior to treatment, and to
have a neurologist on hand to read the scan and decide
whether it’s time to use TPA or not.
The bottom line, said Graham, is that TPA has the
potential to save lives, and more and more people in their
40s and 50s in Parry Sound are suffering strokes. Right
now, when paramedics pick up patients they believe are
having strokes, she said, they bypass the local hospital
and head straight for Huntsville.
But that doesn’t always happen, since people are often
brought to the hospital by family members who can’t
recognize the signs.
“So if you, as a husband or wife, bring someone into
our Parry Sound hospital they aren’t bypassed,” she
said.
She said it’s a race to get the patient to a proper facility,
and even once they’re there, the drug can’t be administered
right away, so having the capability to deploy it here in
Parry Sound would be a huge step forward.
Furi said recognizing the symptoms of stroke early
on is the best way to ensure proper treatment.
“Weakness, trouble speaking, vision problems,
headache, dizziness, these are the kinds of things that
the foundation want to get out so people can recognize
the signs and symptoms because sometimes they’re
subtle,” he said.
Learning
to dance
VOLUNTEER TRAINING
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Presented by:
Muskoka/Parry Sound
Sexual Assault Services
Are you a woman who …
April is
Dental Health Month
Brooklyn Bridle (left) and Sydney
Stevens follow the direction of their
helpers during the Canadian Dance
Academy’s presentation of Dance
with Me at the Charles W. Stockey
Centre for the Performing Arts on the
weekend.
Bridle and Stevens, along with
their classmate Jada Robinson
and assistants Elizabeth Graf,
Tori Madden and Ashley Turgeon,
performed Promenade in the first half
of the show.
The two-hour performance featured
almost 50 acts in a variety of forms
including tap, jazz, ballet, point and
hip hop.
Dr. John Jeffrey
General Family, Cosmetic and Implant Dentistry
New Patients Welcome
FREE Consultations and Oral Hygiene
instruction for children under 3 years old.
Phone (705) 746-8317 1-800-430-5065
[email protected] www.georgianbaydentistry.com
7 James Street, Parry Sound
 is concerned with sexual assault and other
violence-against-women issues in your
community?
 would like to work as a volunteer (by telephone)
on the “Women’s Sexual Assault Help Line”,
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opportunity?
If you answered “YES” to any of these questions, this
30-HOUR training and educational opportunity is for
you! For information or registration, please call
774-9083 or 1-877-851-6662 by
Thursday April 30, 2009.
Training sessions begin in Parry Sound on
Monday May 4, 2009 (5:30 p.m. to 9:00 p.m.)
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M
illie Cowling started working at the North star in the
circulation department about 20 years ago. she was born in
sydney, Cape Breton, and moved to Toronto before making
her way to parry sound.
“I just moved up to see what it would be like up here, and never went
back,” she said.
she said the town’s a friendly place to live, and she enjoys her job in the
sales department.
In her spare time she likes to visit with her 11 grandchildren, who live in
whitby and Utterson. she has four children; two girls and two boys.
she said her favourite part of life in parry sound is being next to
Georgian Bay.
“It’s beautiful,” she said. “I like fishing and boating.”
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