April 12, 2007

              
KANSAS CITY, Mo. – Windsor High School basketball coach Heath Heckadon was born at Saint Luke’s Hospital in Kansas City. At just over three pounds, he was one of the first patients in the hospital’s neonatal intensive care unit. He had no idea that one day he’d be back at Saint Luke’s for more life-saving care.

It started like any other Monday as Heckadon prepared for his first-hour class on April 2. But as he tried to jot notes on the chalkboard, his right arm went limp. Then his face started to feel numb and his speech slurred.

He made his way into the school hallway and tried to ask for help, and a group of students playfully wrestled him to the floor. "They thought I was just clowning around," said Heckadon.

He made his way to the school office, where a colleague immediately recognized his situation. At age 29, Heckadon was having a stroke.  

911 emergency help was immediately summoned, and paramedics confirmed the seriousness of Heckadon's condition. "I heard them say 'we need to fly him straight to Saint Luke's Hospital in Kansas City'" Heckadon recalled. There was a hospital nearby, but it wasn't equipped to handle what they suspected was a massive stroke. They called in the Staff of Life helicopter ambulance service out of Columbia, Mo.

"The paramedics deserve credit for rushing Heath to the right hospital," said Marilyn Rymer, M.D., medical director, Saint Luke's Brain and Stroke Institute. "Time equals brain, so their protocol to get him to a center with advanced treatment capabilities made all the difference for Heath."

In the Saint Luke's Hospital Emergency Room, neurologist Christine Boutwell, M.D., assessed Heckadon. By this time he was paralyzed on his right side, unable to speak or follow simple commands. Up until that day, Heckadon had been fit and healthy. He didn't have risk factors for stroke, such as high blood pressure or high cholesterol, and he wasn't a smoker, yet he was undergoing a major brain attack.

Doctors gave Heckadon a CT head scan, or X-ray of his vessels, and a CT perfusion scan to pinpoint the source of the stroke. Dr. Boutwell gave him a shot of the clot-busting drug tPA intravenously, and then neurointerventional radiologist Naveed Akhtar, M.D., used another dose of tPA injected directly into the clot to ensure the obstruction was completely dissolved. When given up to 6 hours after onset of stroke, the treatment is effective.

Within minutes, Heckadon improved dramatically. "A massive stroke like Heath’s can sometimes be fatal, and often results in long-term disability," said Dr. Boutwell.  "It's a myth that strokes can't happen to someone so young."

The next day, surgeons at Saint Luke's Mid America Heart Institute repaired a hole in his heart: the reason Heckadon had a stroke. He was discharged from Saint Luke's in less than a week.

Today Heckadon is self-sufficient and mobile, able to use both sides of his body. He struggles with speech, but doctors expect him to improve dramatically with therapy. He’s grateful to be reunited with his wife, Stacy, and two rambunctious sons. Said Heckadon, “It’s good to be back.”

Saint Luke’s Brain and Stroke Institute is a member of Saint Luke’s Health System, which consists of 11 area hospitals and a number of primary care practices, and provides a range of primary, acute, tertiary, and chronic care services.  The health system is an organization in which the physicians and hospitals, functioning as an integrated unit, assume responsibility for the delivery of comprehensive, cost-effective, quality health care for people in the metropolitan Kansas City area and the surrounding region.