Medical Devices

The Stroke Miracle Cure You Probably Can’t Get

Clot-retrieving stents, which require a lot of personnel and training, are still tough to find at America’s hospitals.

1491495527_tech_stent16-1 — Source: Stryker Corp.

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By Michelle Fay Cortez

April 6, 2017 at 7:18 PM UTC

This article is for subscribers only.

This article is part of the April 10, 2017 issue of businessweek.

Lee Bekemeyer collapsed on the driving range at Stoneybrook West Golf Club one morning in 2015, a massive stroke choking off the flow of blood to his brain. The 86-year-old real estate broker couldn’t get up, move his right side, or speak. One in eight patients with such acute strokes dies within months, and two in three suffer lasting complications such as paralysis, slurred speech, and trouble walking or caring for themselves. Bekemeyer wasn’t one of them.

He was rushed 15 miles to Florida Hospital in Orlando, a comprehensive stroke center. After a CT scan, doctors threaded a metal stent through an artery into his brain, then expanded it to snare and extract the clot, allowing blood to flow freely again. The entire process took less than two hours. “I was walking to the bathroom that night, and I think I was 95 percent back the next day. It was miraculous,” Bekemeyer says. “Not every hospital has a team that does this.”