TOLEDO, Ohio (WTVG) – Lifesaving work done here in Toledo is now becoming lifesaving work around the world.
Precious time is saved for stroke patients with a new collaboration with ProMedica doctors. Lost minutes mean more and more damage to the brain.
We take for granted these days in the US that doctors can get things like advanced brain scans, but also get them read by neurology teams in a timely manner. That’s not the case in places like Pakistan, specifically Karachi, where ProMedica doctor Syed Zaidi went to medical school.
“You don’t have the same technology, the same resource, the same protocols and pathways and treatment options, but the disease is the same,” said Dr. Zaidi from ProMedica’s neurology department.
Dr. Zaidi is now working with doctors in Karachi, a city with a few million more people than the state of Ohio, to share the technology to get these scans ready in time.
Five years ago, there was a chance that no one would read the scan and look for things like blocked blood vessels before it was too late. A year ago it was about 30 minutes to an hour, now it’s a matter of minutes. It is similar to what we have here.
“Educating this next generation of leaders who can help the population there and essentially provide stroke care locally,” said Dr. Zaidi.
Which is the ultimate goal of this ProMedica partnership. Minutes matter when talking about the lack of immediate access to advanced brain imaging. According to Dr. Zaidi, every 10 minutes lost in stroke treatment increases the chance of a worse outcome by five percent.
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