How a vital chain of events allowed a stroke victim to walk away unharmed

 “Shotgun” Jackson and his wife Carol of Independence, Missouri, last year made a second home for themselves in Montrose, Missouri, a small community about twenty miles southwest of Clinton.  Jackson had retired from his semi trailer repair business in April, 2003, and looked forward to working on his new home in Montrose.

Then on October 23, 2003, as Jackson was stapling insulation to a wall in his home in Montrose, his next door neighbor stopped by to pay a visit.  Upon her arrival, she took a good look at Jackson and said, “Shotgun, I think you’re having a stroke.” 

Missouri EMS Professionals Asked to Share Experience and Expertise in AHA Survey

To the American Heart Association, EMS professionals are a vital source of information for establishing a better system of stroke care nationwide.  A current critical need is for EMS professionals to share what they know about stroke care in their regions in a brief online survey.  More in a minute.
 
There are few EMS professionals who haven’t treated and cared for a stroke patient.  Many of us have also seen the effects of stroke amongst family members and friends.  Clearly, much progress has been made in recent years to treat stroke.  For instance, amazing stories of patients having massive strokes and going home just days later with no neuro deficits continue to come out of St. Luke’s Mid-America Brain and Stroke Institute.

You're driving down the freeway at 4 pm.  Maybe you're headed home, to the store, to your kid's soccer game.  Where ever you're going, you're surely not planning on being aboard an air ambulance helicopter to be LifeFlighted at 150 miles per hour to the nearest trauma center. 

Kent Shutt is a MEMSA member working in Odessa and Kansas City.  Shutt got his EMT license in 1989 and his paramedic license in 1991.  Back then Shutt says MEMSA’s role in Missouri EMS didn’t particularly mean much to him – he was new and besides passing his practical tests, which MEMSA had some involvement in, his attention was primarily on starting his new career.  Eighteen years later, Kent says his outlook on MEMSA has changed quite a bit, partly because he’s much more involved in his industry now and because his initial incorrect impression of MEMSA was corrected a few years ago.