The ribbon-cutting was somewhat anticlimactic: in a matter of seconds, with quick snips of scissors, the twisted blue and yellow pieces tumbled to the sides of the door accompanied by a smattering of applause from the 30-odd administrators, doctors, and nurses who were gathered for the brief ceremony.
Yet for many who were present in the University of Toledo Medical Center, Monday signified the culmination of three to four years of planning and 15 years of hard work to achieve the status of being labeled a Comprehensive Stroke Network.
"This community still relies on stroke services that are not state of the art," said Dr. Jeffrey P. Gold, the chancellor, executive vice president for biosciences and health affairs, and dean of the college of medicine and life sciences at the UT Medical Center. "Today, we rise to the occasion."
Monday's ceremony was both an unveiling of equipment and the introduction of two neurointerventionalists, Dr. Syed Zaidi and Dr. Mouhammad Jumaa, who are joining the team of eight other faculty members trained in stroke care within the neurology department.
The stroke program at the former Medical College of Ohio has been in place since 1994 and was the region's first certified stroke center. It has received the American Heart Association's Stroke Gold Plus Performance Award.
With its two new specialists and $1.6 million investment in the Philips Allura Xper FD20/20 equipped biplane suite -- a machine that enables a more comprehensive image of the brain -- the stroke program has finally advanced to the next step in patient care, Dr. Gold said.
As a Comprehensive Stroke Network, the UT Medical Center hopes that there will no longer be a reason to send stroke patients to larger hospitals in cities like Cleveland or Columbus. The center sees about 200 stroke patients per year, said Gretchen Tietjen, professor and chair of the neurology department and director of the Stroke Program.
"We hope to build a referral network," Dr. Gold said. "We want to be sure patients and 911 operators have a single number to call [when stroke symptoms present themselves] so that we can reduce the death rate and [stroke-related] disabilities."
The new biplane machine facilitates more precise procedures and aids in advancing endovascular treatment. Eighty percent of strokes are caused by a clot in the brain, Ms. Tietjen said. With endovascular procedures, doctors are able to insert a catheter in arteries in the groin to dissolve the clot. Precision and time are of the essence: Doctors must work quickly to save as much brain tissue as possible.
Ms. Tietjen said she hopes that the UT Medical Center will be able to work with smaller hospitals in the area to arrange for rapid transport to the center now that they have a larger faculty and more advanced facilities to treat stroke patients. She also hopes adding the biplane machine will bolster research programs. While she said the center has a strong research program in acute stroke trials, she wants to expand research to include endovascular procedures.
"Did you ever think this day was going to come?" a colleague asked Ms. Tietjen with a grin.
"No, I didn't," she answered with a shake of her head.
Contact Madeline Buxton at: mbuxton@theblade.com or 419-724-6368.
First Published July 10, 2012, 4:15 a.m.
