Methodist Healthcare System | Keeping Well | Fall 2018

“I’M JUST TIRED,” Cather Manous thought. “Surely that’s all it is.” After all, being sick wasn’t an option for 63-year-old Manous. In addition to caring for her aging father and spending time with her five grandchildren, Manous juggled a full schedule of gardening, fishing and volunteering with the youth at her church. She simply didn’t have time to be sick. As Manous would soon find out, however, strokes don’t operate on a schedule. It began when she woke up. “I just felt sluggish,” Manous recalled. As the day wore on, the feeling persisted. “I noticed that my head was starting to hurt, and I felt tingling and numbness in the left side of my body.” Having been more active than usual in the days prior, Manous figured that she had just overextended herself. Taking a break would help, she thought. Upon sitting down, how- ever, Manous experienced a burning sensation all over her body. Some- thing was definitely off. “It was time to call 911,” Manous recounted. Soon enough, the San Antonio Fire Department arrived, followed shortly by EMS. Recognizing that Manous required medical attention, a paramedic informed her that she needed to go to the hospital. “I said ‘no’,” Manous recalled. “I’m just tired.” The paramedic persisted. “I just want to go to sleep,” Manous re- plied. “I’ll make you a deal,” the paramedic said. “Let’s just go find out what’s happening. If nothing is wrong, you can come back home.” Manous reluctantly agreed, requesting to be taken to Metropolitan Methodist Hospital. Before she had a chance to second-guess her decision, Manous was loaded into the ambulance—and not a mo- ment too soon. On the way to the hospital, Manous suffered a full-blown stroke. Upon arriving at Metropolitan Methodist, she was released to the care of registered nurse Brandy Rodriguez. “When Ms. Manous arrived at the hospital, she presented the classic signs of a stroke: numbness, staring and slowed speech,” Rodriguez recalled. After performing a CT scan to ensure that Manous was not ex- periencing a brain hemorrhage, the medical team advised her on a treatment option called Tissue Plasminogen Activator, or t-PA. “Ischemic type strokes are caused by clots in the brain that block blood flow,” Rodriguez noted. “In these cases, t-PA can break up the clot and restore the flow of blood to the brain.” It was the type of analysis that Manous’s medical team had been trained to perform. As a Joint Commission-accredited stroke center, Metropolitan Methodist Hospital is among a handful of local facili- ties specially equipped in the treatment of strokes—and the team’s expertise was quickly apparent to Manous. “I’ve had strokes before, but I’d never been given t-PA,” she recounted. Slowly but surely, Manous’s numbness subsided, and before long she wanted to sit up in bed. With the stroke now stabilized, Rodriguez and her team went to work on the emotional aspect of the healing process. “Medical emergencies can be scary,” Rodriguez noted. “For many patients, it is comforting to know that their loved ones are aware of the situation.” Her speech still in recovery, Manous asked Rodriguez to call her family and let them know what had happened. “It was so good to have someone who was not only concerned about my health, but also my well-being as far as my family was concerned,” Manous recalled. “You just don’t receive care like that everywhere.” In the days that followed, Rodriguez checked in on Manous’s progress in the critical care unit. It was a gesture that would form the foundation of a bond that lives on today. “This hospital was so good to me,” Manous said. “It’s hard to really express how thankful I am to everyone who played a role in helping me recover faster than I ever have before.” Methodist Healthcare’s Patient Portal Managing your health care is easier than ever . Our patient portal allows secure online access to your hospital medical records, 24 hours a day, from your computer, tablet or smartphone. Visit www.SAHealth.com/MyHealthOne To learn more about patient portal, or to create your account. Need help or have questions? Call 855-422-6625. Features offered by our Patient Portal: Lab results, reports, hospital pre-registration, find a doctor and make an appointment, bill pay, registration for classes and events, and more. IMPORTANT PHONE NUMBERS FOR YOUR HEALTHCARE NEEDS HEALTHBUS AND WELL WALDO’S WHEELS 210-MHS-RIDE (210-647-7433) Do you worry about how you will get to your next doctor’s appointment? Do you use a wheelchair and need a little extra assistance getting to the hospital for outpatient testing? Do you have a child with special needs and lack a vehicle that can accommodate your child’s medical transportation needs? Methodist Healthcare has the answer. HealthBus for adults and Well Waldo’s Wheels for children and expectant moms provide transportation from your home to your doctor’s office or hospital and then pick you up later and take you home. For information on how to schedule a ride and specific hospitals and ZIP codes served, please call 210-MHS-RIDE (210-647-7433) . CALL-A-NURSE FOR CHILDREN FROM METHODIST CHILDREN’S HOSPITAL 210-22-NURSE (210-226-8773) Monday – Friday, 5 p.m. to 8 a.m. Weekends and major holidays. When your child has a medical need, Call-A- Nurse for Children from Methodist Children’s Hospital, a campus of Methodist Hospital, has specially trained pediatric nurses to assist you with medical advice concerning your child. STROKE SURVIVOR THANKS EMS TECHNICIANS AND METROPOLITAN METHODIST HOSPITAL STAFF FOR SAVING HER LIFE Cather Manous and Brandy Rodriguez, RN F A L L 2 0 1 8 5 K E E P I N G W E L L M e t h o d i s t H e a l t h c a r e