June 27, 2009

The Daily Oklahoman

While heading on vacation with his wife on Father’s Day, Jack Sappenfield suddenly felt dizzy. A few minutes later, the left side of his face went numb and he lost strength in his left side.

Sappenfield, 71, of Washington, OK, immediately pulled over, and his wife drove him to a hospital they had just passed on the highway near Yukon.

"When we realized I was having a stroke, we knew we had to do the right thing,” he said. "I have seen what happens after a stroke. I was afraid that I would be paralyzed or die.”

Medical staff at the Canadian Valley Hospital in Yukon began testing him for stroke and consulted with stroke specialist Dr. Larry Davis from INTEGRIS Baptist Medical Center in Oklahoma City.

The teams communicated using two-way interactive videoconferencing technology called the INTEGRIS TeleStroke Network. Sappenfield and his wife were able to see and talk to Davis while he asked Sappenfield about his medical history and helped form a diagnosis with the doctor at Canadian Valley.

Sappenfield is the second success case using the new technology network; the first was Johnny Miller of Clinton on May 30.

At Clinton Regional Hospital, Miller’s doctors turned to Dr. Charles Morgan from INTEGRIS Southwest Medical Center for a second opinion, and Miller was flown to Oklahoma City for further treatment.

The network

The INTEGRIS TeleStroke Network is a spoke-and-hub system potentially connecting more than 25 Oklahoma regional hospitals to the two hub hospitals, INTEGRIS Southwest Medical and INTEGRISBaptist Medical Center.

So far, Clinton Regional and Canadian Valley Regional are the only hospitals on the network. Canadian Valley Regional was connected April 28 and Clinton Regional was connected May 12.

The remaining 20 rural hospitals within the Integris system and two hospitals outside the health care system are expected to be connected by 2011. An additional hospital is expected to be connected an unknown date.

When a suspected stroke patient comes to the emergency room, a doctor is able to contact a stroke specialist in Oklahoma City within 15 minutes.

The specialist will see the patient and review his or her condition and decide on the best treatment along with the emergency room physician.

For Sappenfield and Miller, stroke specialists advised they be administered a clot-busting drug that lowers the chance of disability after a stroke.

Because they were treated soon after their first symptoms of stroke, Miller and Sappenfield have fully recovered and do not appear to have any lasting effects from the stroke, Morgan said.

While this network is the first in the state, St. John’s Health Center in Tulsa also is working to start a similar program within the near future, Morgan said.

"We (Oklahoma) are not worst in the nation when it comes to stroke, but we are pretty close and we need to fix that,” he said.

Click here to view the interview with Dr. Charles Morgan