Stroke treatment target is beaten
10:33am Wednesday 7th August 2013 in Health & Wellbeing
HOSPITAL staff in York have beaten Government targets by administering a clot-busting drug to their 200th stroke patient.
The treatment, known as thrombolysis, can prevent further brain damage and has been available at York Hospital since 2008. It is now available 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and is led by specially trained consultants backed up by senior nurses.
A drug is used to dissolve the clot in the brain and it increases the chances of a good recovery if administered early.
Carol Croser, lead stroke nurse with York Teaching Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, said: The service is having a huge positive impact on the care we provide, allowing us to see and treat more patients, and 30 per cent of them will make a better recovery with the drug than without it.
The trust has seen a steady rise in patients coming forward for thrombolysis. The aim is for them to be treated within four-and-a-half hours of symptoms starting and within 30 minutes of arriving at hospital.
Read this article:
Stroke treatment target is beaten