Karen Bess couldn’t move her left arm, was having trouble swallowing, having trouble speaking, though she didn’t realize that at first.
“I thought I sounded fine,” said Bess, a stroke survivor now four years into her recovery.
Bess had to relearn the basics of daily living, as basic as bathing, dressing and brushing her teeth. She did so at Augusta Health in Fishersville, where she spent an intensive period of post-stroke rehabilitation that has her about as back to normal as she can be at this point.
“You worry that people are going to look at you, wonder what’s wrong with you. They’re not looking at you. You’re fine,” Bess said at an event at Augusta Health on Tuesday marking the local hospital’s Get With The Guidelines-Stroke Bronze Performance Achievement Award from the American Stroke Association.
The award notes Augusta Health’s success in implementing a higher standard of stroke care by ensuring that stroke patients receive treatment according to nationally accepted standards and recommendations.
“With a stroke, time lost is brain lost,” said Patra Reed, the director of clinical support for Augusta Health’s stroke program.
The hospital has developed a comprehensive system for rapid diagnosis and treatment of stroke patients admitted to the emergency room. The system includes being equipped 24-7 to provide brain-imaging scans, having neurologists available to conduct patient evaluations and using clot-busting medications when appropriate.
The program is also heavy in its emphasis on post-stroke care. At Augusta Health, as with the national ASA program, the emphasis is on what is called the “teachable moment,” the time soon after a patient has had a stroke, when they are most likely to listen to and follow the advice of health-care professionals. Studies show that patients who are taught how to manage their risk factors while still in the hospital reduce their risk of a second stroke.
That’s what Bess has been able to do for more than four years now.
“I can never fully express my thanks to all the nurses, the therapists and my doctor for all that they did for me. I could have been in a lot worse state if I hadn’t had the kind of care that I had here,” Bess said.
– Story by Chris Graham
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