A Listing of Stroke Centers That Offer the Most Advanced Techniques In The United States

A Herculean effort has been made by the Life Extension^® staff to identify hospitals in major metropolitan areas that fit the definition of a comprehensive stroke center.

At the time we made contact with the hospitals we have listed on the following pages, they were capable of rapid-response treatment of acute stroke using intra-arterial thrombectomy/tPA (endovascular clot retrieval therapy).

Obtaining this information about acute stroke treatment capabilities has been highly challenging. If you don’t see a hospital near you on the list we have compiled, check our special website: www.LifeExtension.com/stroke.
We will be adding more stroke centers to our list as we identify them.

If you do not find a comprehensive stroke center close by, we encourage you to reach out to your local hospitals to find which ones offer the latest endovascular stroke treatment expertise and clot retrieval devices.

How To Interact With Hospitals

Identifying and amalgamating this list of comprehensive stroke centers has been a daunting task. Getting through to medical staff at hospitals to verify their stroke treatment capability sometimes took weeks.

We don’t want to discourage Life Extension^® members from aggressively reaching out to their local hospitals to determine which are most competent in reversing acute ischemia stroke. We just want to provide some guidance on the obstacles we ran into.

We applaud those hospitals where the operators have the ability to patch through to a stroke coordinator, where you can ask them questions and get specific answers. But, more often than not, if you do not have a name for the operator to look up, they cannot send you anywhere.

Sometimes the operator sends you to a neurology unit, but most of the time they haven’t a clue as to what devices are used for cerebral clot retrieval. They will give you another number, which you hope yields results, but often it doesn’t. After being sent through several floors, including radiology, neurology, and a variety of subdivisions, you may feel like giving up. You may have been on hold for 10 to 20 minutes while you are being patched around the hospital.

At some point, when you start all over and talk to the operator, you may ask for the emergency room, because that’s where one would go first. Of course, we never want to call there first because nurses are extremely busy and are juggling all kinds of urgencies, but if you can get the charge nurse or nurse educator, they more often than not, know the name of the stroke coordinator. Some hospitals have so many menus to plough through that even getting to the ER takes several minutes.

In some instances, when we explained what we were seeking, we were told they could not answer our questions without approval from their “public relations” department. Most of the time, when we finally reached the destination of the stroke coordinator of the hospital, all we got was voice mail.

Currently we have left 106 voice messages at hospitals that have not been returned. We have deleted 190 hospitals that don’t offer intra-arterial clot removal procedures on a rapid response basis.

Every hospital is different in that most stroke coordinators wear many hats and have to keep certification in all of them. Rarely is it the only position that he or she holds. Because of that, many stroke coordinator positions are often being refilled, so whoever they list may have already left the position and it seems hard for hospital staff to know who that officially is. Normally it is a nurse that has loads of experience and they are well-versed in the position and very helpful.

Our Listing Of Comprehensive Stroke Centers

Improvements in acute stroke treatment have come a long way since the days when a major ischemic blockage meant inevitable paralysis, long-term institutional confinement, and/or death.

With new developments in endovascular clot removal stroke treatment, it’s exciting to know that a brain can be saved, a life can be lived more fully, and people can have the opportunity to change their lifestyle to live healthy, longer lives should they need endovascular clot retrieval therapy to save their brain.

The following listing of comprehensive stroke centers was obtained starting April 25 and concluded June 29, 2015. Additional names of hospitals offering these acute stroke reversal therapies may be found at:

www.LifeExtension.com/stroke.

This listing of Comprehensive Stroke Centers in the United States is not endorsed by or affiliated with Life Extension^®. Life Extension ^® has not verified the competence, professional credentials, business practices, or validity of these stroke centers. Life Extension^® makes no recommendation of any stroke center on this listing. Life Extension^® is not liable for any loss or injury suffered as a result of using any stroke center on this listing.