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Surgeons save mother's life with radical technique to combat stroke
Anna Davis, Education Correspondent28 Jul 2009
Doctors saved the life of a mother of two by carrying out a pioneering operation while she was having a stroke.
They were able to restore blood flow to Charlotte Clowes Cattrell's brain by repairing a damaged artery and injecting clot-busting drugs.
The 40-year-old had collapsed at her home in East Dulwich after complaining of a "three-day migraine" and was taken to King's College hospital. Doctors said she would almost certainly have died if they had not operated.
Ms Clowes Cattrell, a textiles artist, was released from hospital two weeks after the emergency procedure and is able to care for her two daughters again.
Her husband Peter said: "We were just getting up to take the girls to school and she tried to get out of bed but landed on the floor. It was very scary. Her eyes rolled back."
A stroke occurs when blood flow to the brain is interrupted, depriving it of oxygen. A scan on Ms Clowes Cattrell showed there were clots in her brain which had broken off from a damaged blood vessel at the base of her skull.
The clots were stopping blood getting through to the left side of her brain. If left untreated the tissue would have died, affecting her memory, movement, speech and possibly killing her.
Dr Tim Hampton, a consultant neuroradiologist, repaired the vessel by inserting a stent - a tube - into it. This was put into her groin and pushed up through her arteries into the correct place. Dr Hampton could then quickly insert a drug to break up the clot and restore blood flow to the brain.
This was one of the first times a stent had been used to unblock an artery in a brain. If the blood vessel had not been repaired the drugs would have only been able to trickle into the brain.
Dr Hampton said: "This is cutting-edge stuff and it is very rewarding seeing this being used on a patient."
Ms Clowes Cattrell's husband, a photographer, said: "When Charlotte came out of the operation she couldn't move her right side at all, but then things started to happen. She was able to answer questions and correct me when I got things wrong.
"Sometimes she has a slight delay while she struggles to think of the right words. But she has a lot of movement and is having speech therapy. Three days after coming out of hospital she went to a wedding."
Ms Clowes Cattrell said: "I don't remember much about what happened. I just remember the ambulance people being in the room for a little bit. I think the doctors are brilliant. It is nice to be home."
Lalit Kalra, professor of stroke medicine at King's, said: "We regularly treat patients with stroke using clot-busting drugs administered through veins. This is the traditional way of treating a stroke and can improve recovery in one out of three patients.
"However, because we regularly see patients with varying severity of stroke at King's, it may be possible in certain cases to improve recovery further by opening up blood vessels in other ways, such as stenting. This was effective in Charlotte's case and I am excited about how this treatment could benefit other stroke patients."
King's was this week designated as one of eight hyper-acute stroke centres for London, treating patients with the most severe strokes.
