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Billings Clinic announces new stroke treatment center

Billings Gazette - 6/3/2021

Jun. 3—The Billings Clinic announced the funding of a new stroke treatment program on Wednesday, reducing the need for out-of-state care for Montana stroke victims.

$2.6 million in charitable donations to the Billings Clinic Foundation will be used to fund a state-of-the-art stroke treatment center, Foundation president Jim Duncan announced during a press conference. The Clinic has set aside room in the hospital's radiology department to house the new equipment, along with the staff needed to perform the new operations and treatments.

"The goal here is to build what we call a 'Bi-planar Interventional Neuroradiology Suite,' a world-class suite that'll be able to offer stroke treatments, interventional stroke treatment twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week at the Billings Clinic," said Dr. Mark Piedra, Billings Clinic's department chair of neurology and neurosurgery.

One of the most critical pieces of equipment is an imaging machine that maps the blood vessels in the brain, which "... allows the person doing the procedure to pass that catheter through the brain ... to get to the spot where the clot is and then remove the clot," Piedra said.

Currently, there is no facility in Montana that is able to perform these procedures. Instead, stroke patients who require thrombectomies must be flown to Denver, adding extra time to a critical condition, as well as incurring significant extra cost to patients. Billings Clinic reports that over 40 patients have had to be transported out of state for life-saving stroke operations since January 2021.

One such patient is John Roberts of Billings, a retired teacher who experienced a stroke in late February, while driving. "The last thing I remember, I was on 24th and Central," he said. Roberts experienced severe memory loss during his stroke, resulting in his memories of the day being absent or unclear. He drove nearly four miles after the stroke started, ending up on Cactus Drive.

Roberts was spotted by an off-duty employee of St. Vincent Healthcare, who noticed that he was in medical distress and immediately called 911. "All of a sudden, here is an ambulance, a police car, and a fire truck, and I'm thinking 'I wonder if somebody's house is burning down behind me.' But no, it was me," said Roberts. He and his wife were then flown to Denver for emergency treatment.

After enduring multiple hours with an active stroke, including the almost three hours spent flying to Denver, Roberts received a life-saving thrombectomy. Remarkably, he walked away not just with his life, but also with a complete lack of scarring or disability. "It's an amazing procedure, I'd never heard of it before," said Roberts. "I was pretty lucky. I woke up after it, I felt pretty good."

Victims of strokes rarely have time for a two- to three-hour flight to receive treatment. "Time is of the essence to get to definitive treatment, to prevent the disability that stroke can often cause if it's not treated quickly," said Piedra. The first three hours of a stroke are critical to patient recovery, as the chance of death or disability rise significantly after the third hour.

Billings Clinic has lost patients before due to this critical time period. "In the time it took them to get transferred from here down to Denver where they could get the procedure, we've had patients who, unfortunately, have died," Piedra said. "We've had patients who have been left severely disabled."

Offering treatment locally is expected to increase stroke survival rates, as well as significantly reduce the cost of treatment. "It would save one third of the cost, between one third and one half of the cost if we had that here in Billings, not to mention three hours of time," said Roberts.

Billings Clinic expects that all necessary equipment will be installed, and will be able to begin seeing patients, by the end of the year.

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(c)2021 the Billings Gazette (Billings, Mont.)

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