New Mini-Corkscrew Cures Her Stroke

When George Kuhn noticed that his wife was having trouble speaking on the afternoon of Dec. 28, he called 9-1-1 right away. “I knew it was a stroke,” says the Tamaqua, Pa., man

Just weeks before, his wife, Marie, had suffered a stroke in the right side of her brain. She was treated and discharged with medication before Christmas.

But just a few days before New Year’s Eve, she needed medical attention again. She was airlifted to Lehigh Valley Hospital (LVH)—Cedar Crest & I-78, where a CT scan confirmed to neurologist Yevgeniy Isayev, M.D, that a blood clot was blocking an artery in the left side of Marie’s brain.

“Marie was unable to speak or understand speech intermittently, because the clot was dissolving then reforming,” Isayev explains. “She needed treatment right away.”

Marie was taken to Lehigh Valley Hospital's neurointerventional radiology suite, where interventional radiologist Darryn Shaff, M.D., injected dye into her brain through a tiny tube, which pinpointed the clot’s location. Shaff gave Marie a low dose of the clotbuster tPA which improved blood flow in her brain. But Shaff felt a significant clot remained.

“She was in danger of death or permanent disability,” Shaff said. “I saw that this was going to get worse and become a severe stroke if she didn’t have immediate treatment.”

Because the six-hour window for using tPA was nearly expired, Shaff and Isayev agreed on a different course of action. Shaff would use the Merci Clot Retriever, the only device approved by the FDA for treating stroke, to reach into Marie Kuhn’s brain and remove the clot.

The Merci Clot Retriever is a thin wire with a tiny corkscrew on the tip. Shaff threaded the wire from Marie’s femoral artery in her groin and up into her brain. He advanced it through the clot, then deployed the curly wire, which snagged the clot.

After withdrawing the wire, Shaff checked Marie’s brain to be sure the artery was clot-free.

“It was a success,” he said. This was the first time the clot retriever was used in the Lehigh Valley to cure a stroke. LVH is the only hospital in the region that’s been certified as a Primary Stroke Center and is using this device, which gained FDA approval in 2004.

Within hours, Marie’s speech returned and she regained movement on her right side.

“It was a miracle,” exclaimed George Kuhn, her husband of 40 years. “Marie walked out of the hospital.” She returned to the couple’s home in Tamaqua, her ability to function saved by the Merci Clot Retriever.

“Marie is able to walk and talk because of the Merci Clot Retriever,” Isayev said. “She has a very good prognosis for returning to all her previous activities.”

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