New medical tech saves life

Stroke victim Lino Ozuna more than likely has a piece of medical technology — a surgical innovation not available locally as recently as a year ago — to thank for his life.
“We are so grateful that it was available for my husband,” said Patricia Ozuna, the wife of the patient who is slowly regaining his full faculties. “If this had happened a year ago, it would have been unavailable.”
Patricia Ozuna referred to the Merci Retrieval System used by Dr. Christopher Koebbe, clinical assistant professor of neurosurgery at San Antonio's University of Texas Health Science Center.
The Merci system features a wire, snake-like implement with a coiled end not unlike a corkscrew that is advanced from the groin through blood vessels just past the site of the clot.
“It's very easy to navigate inside the brain, which can be very torturous because the arteries in the brain have multiple loops and bends in them as opposed to other areas of straight anatomy,” Koebbe said in a recent telephone interview.
He said the Merci system replaces conventional systems based on chemical drugs that are delivered directly to the clot or the use of specialized penetrating balloons that bust a clot open.
An advantage to the system is that it lengthens the window of possible effective stroke treatment, Koebbe noted. In the past, patients like Ozuna were brought into emergency treatment rooms with little hope of effective treatment.
Optimum conditions for treatment came into play the night Ozuna's wife drove the patient to the hospital. When a long-used clot-softening drug proved ineffective, Koebbe knew he had to employ the Merci system to save his patient's life.
“He was a good candidate for the Merci retriever because he still had considerable brain tissue left that was not dead,” the neurosurgeon said.
In a telephone interview, Patricia Ozuna recalled the harrowing moments prior to arriving at the hospital. As the couple lay in bed after a full day of activities, she felt his body leaning into hers and her husband A retired bus mechanic, Ozuna, getting ready for bed, began speaking incoherently.