A "lifesaving" pioneering treatment that has proved to reduce disabilities such as paralysis or loss of speech after a stroke has been successfully given to three patients in Tayside in the last month.
All are recovering well and miraculously two of the patients have been able to return home within just a week of receiving the treatment.
NHS Tayside introduced a mechanical thrombectomy pilot service in November 2020, which treats stroke patients by physically removing blood clots from blocked arteries in the brain.
The thrombectomy service in Tayside will be part of a national network of three regional centres along with Glasgow and Edinburgh.
Clinicians are now urging patients to not delay getting help for a suspected stroke.
Dr Sanjay Pillai, Consultant Interventional Radiologist and Clinical Lead for Thrombectomy Service for the North of Scotland said: “For those patients who are suitable to receive thrombectomy, the treatment is most effective in the first few hours after a stroke. Therefore it is really important that anyone who has symptoms of a stroke seeks urgent help by dialling 999 to get treatment as quickly as possible.
“We know that the families of the patients who were treated recently suspected a stroke and called 999 quickly. The paramedic teams who are an integral part of the team helped us to provide the treatment quickly. I can’t emphasise enough that it is a team effort which helps deliver this service.
“People who suspect they may be having a stroke should not wait to ask for help, call for help as soon as you can.”
READ MORE: Here's how to report your Covid lateral flow test result in Scotland
Dr Matt Lambert, NHS Tayside Clinical Lead for Stroke, said: “This treatment can provide a very positive outcome for patients if they receive the treatment early enough. Seeing patients receiving this treatment in Tayside and having fewer problems with disability or returning to their previous ability before their stroke is wonderful.
“After having large strokes, previously people would have been more likely to have died or been left with big deficits in movement and speech. They would also be in hospital for a lot longer receiving rehabilitation and treatment in recovery.
“This treatment means that we can save lives and also reduce the impact of disabilities that a stroke may cause. This service is making a real difference to patients.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here