Medical City Healthcare | Take Care | Spring 2019

Amber Shropshire, 21, a healthy expectant mother from Fort Worth who was 20 weeks pregnant with twin boys, thought her headaches were just another symptom of morn- ing sickness. But one evening while visiting her parents, she began having seizures and was rushed to a community hospi- tal in Decatur. “The seizures kept coming, one after another,” her hus- band, Ronnie Wooten, said. “The Decatur doctors said the prognosis wasn’t good and that there wasn’t much more they could do.” Every second counts Amber’s family was told that without the advanced care available at a Comprehensive Stroke Center such as Medical City Plano’s Brain and Spine Hospital , she likely wouldn’t live past midnight. It was 10:30 p.m. A study presented at the American Stroke Association’s 2019 International Stroke Conference found that women who are pregnant or post- partum have three times the risk for the deadliest type of stroke—intracerebral hemor- rhage. Doctors say “time lost is brain lost” when it comes to stroke and reinforce the importance of reacting quickly to symptoms. Stroke is the No. 5 cause of death and the leading cause of disability in the U.S. Lifesaving stroke care Amber was airlifted to Medical City Plano, where doctors con- firmed an intracerebral hemor- rhage (bleeding stroke) caused by a ruptured arteriovenous malformation (AVM)—a condi- tion of abnormally tangled blood vessels in the brain that Amber might have been born with. Over the course of two weeks, the neurosurgical team initiated several lifesaving treatments, including a pains- taking surgery to separate the tangled mass of blood vessels in her brain from healthy, neighboring tissue—all while calculating the potential dangers to Amber’s unborn children. Since Amber couldn’t be on her stomach for surgery— the typical position for this procedure—the team had to be creative. They situated Amber so that her belly hung free and there was no pressure on her uterus. The surgery, a mini- mally invasive AVM emboliza- tion, was a success. Thanks to expert inter- vention, Amber carried her babies to term and delivered healthy twin boys by Cesarean section. Quick care saves mom and unborn twins Bleeding stroke threatens pregnancy KNOW YOUR RISK. Strokes are treatable, and many are preventable. Take our free Stroke Risk Assessment at MedicalCityHealthcare.com/Stroke . Stroke 3 MedicalCityHealthcare.com