 I have a birthday, November the 22nd, and I'll be 86. God didn't know I had a stroke till it was all over with. The morning of July the 3rd, I was home, and she was home with my brother. My brother lives with her. She had gone into the bathroom, and she fell. And she had asked my brother to help her, not realizing that she had even had a stroke. So my brother listened to her talk, and right away her speech was very garbled. I told my brother I said call 911 and see if they can take her to St. Joe's. My name's Ben Van Landingham. I'm one of the attending emergency doctors at St. Joe's Emergency Room. I was on duty at 7 in the morning when Mrs. Koos came out. This case was fairly easy from a diagnostic point of view because the medics were able to recognize appropriately as soon as they saw her that it looked like she was having a stroke. In fact, her family figured as much as well. And so we have a system of alerting us and talking ahead of time to make us aware that they're bringing in somebody who appears to have just had a stroke. So when she arrived, we have a setup in our hospital where we meet the patient and the ambulance crew as soon as they arrive before they even go into a room. And we start talking right then and there. And so I accompanied Mrs. Koos straight to the CAT scan suite as we talked and as I began to examine her. Once they got me into the emergency room, they were like right on top of things, you know, taking care of me. I remember the doctor coming in asking me where I was at and how I felt and what day of the month was it and all that. And I knew all that. When she arrived at 7 in the morning, the last known well time was 1 in the morning. That's when we were able to say she was fine then. And then she recalled falling on the ground and was able to tell me that she didn't hurt herself and didn't have any pain, but we knew that she was out of the window for the intravenous medication. What we have now, which is the newest tool, is the opportunity for the right patient to be referred down to the University Medical Center for this advanced interventional therapy. The only major treatment option that she had was interventional therapy in the form of trying to put a catheter up in the brain and pull out the clot. And so they called the University of Maryland Medical Center promptly and reached a member of our stroke team. And then she was transferred to the University of Maryland Medical Center and was treated. Well, once the patient arrived, we worked closely with Dr. Chetavette and his stroke neurology team to ensure that the patient's imaging suggested that the benefit-to-risk ratio of the procedure was such that the chance of the patient benefiting was high enough that we should take her to the angiosuite to try to reopen the block vessel. So on the left of the screen, we have the pre-treatment imaging. It's a side view of the brain while we're injecting contrast in the main carotid artery. And we can see that there's a large area that's not receiving direct or forward blood flow in this region. This should all be filled with black blood vessels. And we can see that there's none here because of a blockage down low at the base of the brain. After our treatment, after we were successful removing the clot in the same sort of side view, we can see that this whole area is now filled with these dark blood vessels. You can actually begin to see some of the contrasts going out because it follows the pathway of the blood actually into the tissue. So you can actually see the sort of hazy grayness on this image on the right is actually the indication that we restored the blood flow to that area of the brain that was affected by the stroke. When she presented with a stroke of this severity to be discharged within three days is amazing. And I think that is a testament to the fact that St. Joseph Hospital got her to University of Maryland very quickly and Dr. Miller was able to treat her quickly as well. So all those factors really ensured her best chance for recovery. It was amazing how everybody just worked together because time was a real issue with getting this clot out. I didn't expect to see her today, but we had a chance to meet. And the last time I saw her was on July 3rd in the emergency department. And what a joy to see her looking so well on her feet walking without a cane. Her daughter, Lisa, who had been at St. Joseph Emergency with me was there that morning and I told them that to see her doing so well now three months later is exactly what we need to get through every long, hard day. This outcome is inspiring and it makes everything we do worthwhile. I just gave God all the credit because if it wasn't for the Lord I wouldn't be here because I think he was really looking out for me.