Stroke survivor reunites with first responders who saved his life

Fox 19 and WLWT highlighted a reunion between a Tri-State man and Green Township EMS and UC Health Mobile Stroke Unit first responders who helped save his life when he experienced a severe stroke.

The patient, Steve, woke up one morning unable to speak and paralyzed on one side of his body. His wife, Phyllis, immediately called 911.

Green Township EMS provided initial treatment, and first responders in the mobile stroke unit provided a CAT scan on site, confirming the suspected stroke. With Phyllis’s permission, first responders gave Steve a clot-busting medication.

“That’s what really saved me. Brought me back,” Steve said.

“We’re actually able to bring the emergency department to a patient’s curbside,” Christopher Richards, MD, assistant professor in the University of Cincinnati's Department of Emergency Medicine in the College of Medicine, medical director of the UC Health Mobile Stroke Unit and a UC Health emergency physician, told Fox 19. “So, what really happens in that first half hour or 45 minutes, we can do the vast majority of in the back of the mobile stroke unit. So, we’re able to cut off that requisite time of transport from the home to the hospital.”

After the initial treatment at his home and an 8-day hospital stay, Steve has fully recovered from his stroke.

“Through a lot of different tests and things, I got out,” Steve said. ”I’m walking and breathing and talking.”

Read or watch the Fox 19 story.

Read or watch the WLWT story.

Featured photo at top of UC Health's mobile stroke unit courtesy of UC Health.