The Vinmec Da Nang International Hospital’s doctors have saved the life of a Vietnamese female tourist who suffered brain attack whilst visiting Ly Son Island, off the coast of Quang Ngai Province, roughly 150km from the hospital. Her hospital arrival within the so-called ‘golden hours’ brought her back to life.

The female patient is now in stable health with no complications after having received treatment (Photo: Dan Tri)

The woman was rushed to the hospital in a critical condition after having gone through a 4-hour journey from the island. 

The results of clinical examinations and modern imaging tests showed that she was suffered an acute cerebral infarction an area of necrotic tissue in the brain resulting from a blockage or narrowing in the arteries supplying blood and oxygen to the brain.  This is a very serious prognosis posing the high mortality and disability risk to the patient.

In a prompt fashion, the hospital stroke experts immediately implemented measures to restore blood flow to occluded vessels in the brain.  In parallel with that intervention, emergency techniques were performed to dissolve the blood clot and remove it from inside an artery.

The woman has been discharged from hospital after 3 weeks in intensive treatment with the disease, and she is now in stable health with no complications.

The first hours of symptom onset are called the ‘golden hours’. Reacting quickly to stroke symptoms is vital because “time lost is brain lost.”. 

The reason the first hour is golden is because stroke patients have a much greater chance of surviving and avoiding long-term brain damage if they arrive at the hospital and receive treatment with a clot-busting drug called TPA within that first hour.

By PHAN CHUNG-Translated by A.T