Fast Care for Better Outcomes

The Comprehensive Stroke Center at Providence Little Company of Mary Torrance is one of the best in the country.

Boyd E. Jeffery, an energetic, 53-year-old Manhattan Beach real estate agent known on social media as Boyd The Broker, had a hemorrhagic stroke in December 2021. He says the care he received at Providence Little Company of Mary Torrance “clearly saved my life.”

Above Boyd with his care team: Allison Arch, MD, Jian Guan, MD, Walavan Sivakumar, MD, Barry M. Czeisler, MD and Jason Tarpley, MD | Boyd at the Acute Rehab Unit relearning to walk with an ARU physical therapist

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The day of his stroke, Boyd’s Monday started routinely enough. He dropped off his 15-year-old son, Kai, at school. But within an hour, Boyd recalls, “I started to get a knife-like pain in the back of my neck.” His wife, Xiomara, urged Boyd to call 911 when he described his pain and dizziness to her. The ambulance arrived just as Boyd lost consciousness.

“We see great outcomes a lot. That’s extremely rewarding.”

Boyd was rushed to the Comprehensive Stroke Center at Providence Little Company of Mary Torrance, where the center’s medical director, stroke neurologist Allison Arch, MD, and her team were waiting for him. When it was clear from a CT scan that he had bleeding in the brain, neurosurgeon Jian Guan, MD, performed surgery to relieve the pressure that was causing Boyd’s symptoms and threatening his life. Later, neurosurgeon Walavan Sivakumar, MD, performed a second surgery to place a permanent shunt to control Boyd’s intracranial pressure.

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Half the Battle

As fortunate as Boyd was to survive a hemorrhagic stroke (most people don’t), he still had a long road ahead of him. But good fortune was with him again when he was transferred to the care of Anh Long, MD, who heads the nationally recognized Acute Rehabilitation Unit (ARU) at Providence Little Company of Mary in San Pedro. “We have a tight-knit team who are passionate about what they do,” says Dr. Long. “The strength of the program is that we develop a close relationship with patients while working with them on state-of-the-art equipment.”

“The stroke takes everything away from you,” Boyd says. “I used to be the provider, and now I couldn’t even get out of bed.” But Boyd, who had been an avid amateur athlete, was determined to recover. He spent at least three hours a day working with the ARU’s physical and occupational therapists and speech pathologists to overcome the paralysis that left him unable to walk, talk or swallow. After two weeks in the ARU, it took months of additional outpatient therapy for Boyd to return to his previous life as a broker, husband and father. But, he says, “You have to keep your eyes on the prize, and my prize was my wife and son.”

Every Minute Counts

A stroke is a neurological emergency that can happen to anyone. Survival and recovery depend on early recognition of symptoms and calling 911 so the person can be taken to a Comprehensive Stroke Center.

When a patient with a suspected stroke is brought into a stroke center’s emergency department, the first step is determining what type of stroke the person is experiencing—whether it’s ischemic or hemorrhagic, like Boyd’s was. An ischemic stroke means that oxygen isn’t getting to parts of the brain because there’s a blockage, usually a blood clot. A hemorrhagic stroke means that there’s a rupture of a blood vessel in the brain. Ischemic strokes are by far the more common: 85% of the total.

“Providence Little Company of Mary Torrance clearly saved my life.”

Treatments for the two types of stroke are very different. For ischemic strokes, doctors use clot-busting medications known as tissue-type plasminogen activators (tPAs) that must be given within the first 4½ hours of the stroke’s onset. For hemorrhagic strokes, doctors reduce blood pressure and give medications to reverse the action of any blood thinners that the patient was taking. Surgery and intensive care managed by neurocritical care physicians may follow.

Treatments for both types of strokes are complex and require specially trained medical and nursing care. The Comprehensive Stroke Center Providence Little Company of Mary in Torrance has this expertise available 24/7 to its patients.

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Numbers that Matter

The emergency department at Providence Little Company of Mary in Torrance is one of the most experienced of the 17 Comprehensive Stroke Centers in the region, as well as the fastest of all. Speed of treatment exceeds Emergency Medical Services (EMS) standards for the vast majority of patients, with 87% of ischemic patients receiving clot-busting medications within an hour of arrival and 66% in less than 45 minutes.

When a patient needs a thrombectomy—a minimally invasive surgery to remove a clot so it doesn’t pose further danger—Providence Little Company of Mary again exceeds EMS goals, with 92% of patients receiving a thrombectomy within 120 minutes of arrival. Out of all stroke centers in Los Angeles County, Providence Little Company of Mary is a leader in performing lifesaving thrombectomies.

Providence Little Company of Mary in Torrance received its accreditation as a Comprehensive Stroke Care Center in 2018. Dr. Arch joined the hospital in 2016 to help build a fast, responsive stroke team that now consists of three neurologists, two neurointerventional radiologists, three neurosurgeons and two neurocritical care physicians, plus specialty trained nursing staff.

Although the work is intense and demanding, Dr. Arch says that her team is inspired daily by their patients. “With stroke care, you can make such a difference in the patient’s future quality of life,” she says. “We see great outcomes a lot. That’s extremely rewarding.”