Vacuum Cleaner for the Brain

New technology gave the the physicians an extra 5 hours...she had a stroke and was not able to speak...the use of this new device is credited with allowing a complete recovery...BD

COLUMBUS, Ohio (Ivanhoe Newswire) -- A new device suctions blood clots from the brains of stroke patients and buys doctors five extra hours to cut the risk of death and disability.
"I came downstairs to feed the dogs and I dropped the bowl of dog food and I couldn't figure out why I dropped it," Fargel-McIntosh told Ivanhoe. "I thought, you know, I feel kind of funny. I'm going to go in the living room and lay down … and I just fell on the floor."
When she got to the hospital, it had been three hours since her symptoms first started -- too late to use TPA -- the standard stroke treatment. But there was still time to use a new tool called Penumbra. The first time with the device that we got the vessel open, it was one of those things that makes you get the chills and you shiver and we were high-fiving everybody in the room because the patient just starts talking to us and she had not been able to talk previously," Dr. Budzik said.