Thanks to a donation from the W.P. Carey Foundation, NewYork-Presbyterian now has three mobile stroke treatment units.
What are these units exactly? They’re essentially emergency vans that are equipped with the medicine and equipment needed to treat strokes on the spot.
They’ll also carry two paramedics, a computer tomography technologist and a registered nurse on the van. The unit will have the technology to video-conference in a neurologist, who can recommend and assess the situation.
Why is that important? Every second counts for someone going through a stroke. It can take a matter of minutes before the patient loses functions in parts of their body.
As we well know, it can even lead to death.
The three mobile units will be used in Manhattan, Queens and Brooklyn, around each of NewYork-Presbyterian’s hospital sites.
Since the unit’s launch in Manhattan in 2016, doctors have already seen a 40-minute drop in treatment time.
That’s the difference between life or death for a stroke patient.