Advanced Primary Stroke Center

Glendale Adventist Medical Center has earned the Gold Seal of ApprovalTM from The Joint Commission for Primary Stroke Centers. The Primary Stroke Center distinction means that GAMC has demonstrated that its Stroke Care Program follows national standards and guidelines that can significantly improve outcomes for stroke patients.

Regardless of how an acute stroke patient enters the hospital, our stroke alert team is ready to respond 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Each member of the team is highly trained and performs a critical function, resulting in faster treatment times and, ultimately, better outcomes and shorter hospital stays.

The GAMC Stroke Program offers comprehensive diagnostic and therapeutic care of patients with disorders of blood vessels of the brain including:

• Ischemic Stroke
• Transient Ischemic Attack
• Carotid Stenosis
• Cerebral Hemorrhage
• Aneurysms/Subarachnoid Hemorrhage
• Vascular Malformation of the brain

A stroke is a 'brain attack', a serious medical emergency. Immediate treatment - treatment within 90 minutes - significantly increases a patient's chances for recovery and survival.

Stroke Facts:

• 3rd leading cause of death
• 160,000 deaths per year in US
• 770,000 stroke per year

• Leading cause of adult disability

Recognize the Signs of a Stroke:

• Sudden weakness of the face, arms, legs, especially on one side of the body
• Sudden trouble walking, loss of balance, coordination
• Sudden trouble seeing in one or both eyes
• Sudden confusion, trouble speaking or understanding
• Sudden severe headache with no known cause

New medications and interventions can minimize damage to the brain if help is sought in time. TPA is a clot-busting medication that has proven effective if delivered within three hours from the onset of symptoms. Research and clinical trials are on-going to extend the treatment window.

Through the GAMC neurointerventional radiology program, interventional neuroradiologists are able to extend the life-saving window of treatment for stroke patients by up to eight hours by delivering clot-busting medications directly to the brain or by using a special device resembling a tiny corkscrew, to remove a clot from delicate brain arteries. This advancement allows GAMC physicians the ability to treat three times as many patients who present with symptoms of stroke.

Recently, GAMC was proud to partner with Glendale Arts and the City of Glendale Development Services to provide a special stroke presentation by Dr. Jill Bolte Taylor, a Harvard-trained neuroanatomist who suffered a stroke in 1997.