Sorry, you need to enable JavaScript to visit this website.
Article Image Alt Text

Letter to the Editor 5-1-20

Dear Editor,

Throughout the pandemic that has sickened over 1 million Americans and killed almost 60,000 citizens, we have often seen televised appreciation for doctors, nurses, and other hospital personnel – who risk getting the Coronavirus infection themselves, while caring for COVID-19 victims. While most of us shelter at home, there are other medical people who are rarely in our thoughts until we need them to come to our house in an emergency.
I want to share a recent experience with some local heroes – Concordia’s Paramedics/EMTs. I got up in the middle of the night to use the bathroom, but afterwards I fell down on the floor in a confused state – unable to stand, to speak clearly, or even to drink a glass of water brought to me by my wife, Pat. She called 911, and three people quickly arrived – David Whitley, Kelsey Larson, and Andrew Allen.  These First Responders immediately recognized that I was in the process of having a stroke, meaning that they had to respond swiftly if I were to have any chance to avoid a serious disability. They came inside our house without knowing whether my wife and I were infected with the Coronavirus, because we could have been asymptomatic, without any outward symptoms.
Our First Responders took me to the CCHC Emergency Room, where the medical staff arranged to have a specialist at a Wichita hospital try to interrupt what was happening to me. It was critical to start the procedure as soon as possible, so David Whitley and Andrew Allen rushed me to Wichita. I have only blurred memories of the trip, except for the calm support (with an explanation of what was planned), plus the sounds and vibrations of traveling as fast as was safe for an ambulance.
I was taken to a type of specialist that I had never heard of – an interventional radiologist. While watching my image in a CT scanner, the incredible Dr. Kumar Reddy located the blood clot that was reducing the flow of oxygenated blood to the right side of my brain. He threaded a stent on a wire up from my groin, through the carotid artery on right side of my neck – and amazingly, he maneuvered the stent through my branching cerebral arteries until the stent reached the blood clot. He used the stent to snag the clot and pull it out. Then he removed another blood clot and plaque where my right carotid artery leads into my cerebral arteries – which increased the flow of oxygen to where the other clot had been. Incredibly, he completely removed both clots without breaking either of them into pieces – which then would have clogged many smaller arteries inside my brain and caused permanent losses in multiple areas of functioning.
The next day, to my astonishment, an MRI revealed that both clots had been removed before they had reduced the blood supply to my brain long enough to cause significant damage. I remained in the ICU for 6 days, while I was started and stabilized on an IV anticoagulant (“blood thinner”), eventually taking an oral tablet twice daily. Over the course of my hospital stay, a long series of Stroke Scale tests were administered about 50 times (every 2 hours at first), and I never had trouble with any item. Since then, neither my wife nor any of the family and friends who have talked with me on the phone have noticed any change in my thinking.
I was in the process of falling off a cliff, so to speak, when I was pulled back from the edge by the extremely rapid response of Concordia’s Paramedics/EMTs, who sped me to an extraordinary interventional radiologist located 175 miles away. My gratitude is beyond words.

Fred Prindaville, retired psychologist

 

Concordia Blade-Empire

510 Washington St.
Concordia, KS 66901