The last thing Marty McDougall remembers from Thursday, June 17, is placing her purse on her desk. The 59-year-old administrative assistant was ready for another busy day in the nurse scheduling office at Ingham Regional Medical Center.

Then…everything went black.

Marty “woke up” Saturday afternoon, surrounded by nurses she recognized as working in the hospital’s intensive care unit. “I asked what was going on,” says Marty. “And one of the physicians told me: ‘Marty, you’ve had a stroke. We’re getting ready to move you to the stroke unit.’”

Each year, about 795,000 people suffer a stroke. It is the leading cause of serious, long-term disability, and the number three cause of death in the United States.

Stroke not only has serious consequences for its victims, but according to the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute, stroke and other cardiovascular disease-related illnesses cost employers around $127 billion annually in higher medical costs and lost productivity.

Not a surprising fact, given that most employees in the United States have at least one of the three major risk factors for stroke—high blood pressure, high cholesterol and cigarette smoking.

Marty acknowledges that she had more than a few risk factors for stroke, including high blood pressure, atrial fibrillation and a family history of the disease. However, she was taking medicine to control her blood pressure and was watching her diet. “In my mind, stroke was something that was never going to happen to me,” she says.

Experiences like Marty’s are why physicians say stroke is like a thief—striking suddenly and robbing its victim of speech and mobility. A stroke can occur in just a few seconds, leaving the victim with weakness or numbness in the face, arm or leg, typically on one side.

Many stroke victims also experience confusion and difficulty speaking, loss of vision in one eye, sudden severe headache with no known cause, dizziness, loss of coordination and trouble walking. Stroke victims are usually too confused to seek help for themselves.

In Marty’s case, coworker and registered nurse Nancy Merrill noticed something was amiss when Marty had trouble responding to a simple question. “I repeated the question, only to receive another strange reply,” says Nancy. “At that point, I stopped what I was doing and pushed my chair over to face her.”

Marty’s speech was garbled and she had a distinctive facial droop. “I knew those were classic signs of stroke, so I picked up the phone and dialed the emergency department,” says Nancy.

These women’s experience is a powerful reminder to take stroke seriously in the workplace. For their part, employers might consider arranging a free blood pressure screening for employees and educating them about warning signs and risk factors for stroke.

Programs that encourage employees to control their blood pressure, adopt heart-healthy diets, and stop smoking, among other activities, can even positively impact a company’s bottom line. For example, research conducted by the American Stroke Association found that worksite wellness programs return an estimated $3.40 to $7.88 for every $1 spent.

With stroke, time lost is brain lost, meaning every second counts in the race against disability and death. Educating employees on the warning signs of stroke can help ensure victims are brought into the emergency department for diagnosis and treatment within the critical three-hour window following symptom onset.

When stroke does strike, Ingham Regional’s physicians and nurses are ready to spring into action. Our multi-disciplinary team offers patients care that meets and exceeds a rigorous national standard, as one of the first two hospitals in Michigan to receive Primary Stroke Center Certification from the Healthcare Facilities Accreditation Program.

From the moment a patient is admitted up to, and even following, discharge, we follow strict protocols—administering special, clot-busting drugs within three hours of symptom onset and anti-clotting drugs by the end of the second day in the hospital. Evaluation by physical and occupational therapists and speech and language pathologists occurs within 48 hours of arrival, putting stroke victims on the road to recovery.

Today, we’re proud to report that Marty is back at work. Since her stroke in June, she has celebrated her sixtieth birthday and welcomed her ninth grandchild into the world. Although she uses a wheelchair and is undergoing physical therapy to teach her body how to walk again, Marty faces every day glad to be alive.

		Jayne Ward, DO is medical director of Ingham Regional Medical Center’s Stroke Center. She practices general neurology at Michigan State University-College of Osteopathic Medicine’s department of neurology and ophthalmology, and is an associate professor of neurology.