The Irish Heart Foundation and stroke survivors have protested outside Dublin’s Beaumont Hospital on World Stroke Day over what they describe as “an imminent threat” to the national service delivering thrombectomy, the most effective lifesaving treatment for stroke. The machine has broken down several times - on several occasions, as stroke patients were being treated - and is now so old spare parts will cease to be made for it from the end of 2019, it says. The HSE referred queries about the service to Beaumont Hospital. The technique reduces stroke deaths by half and the rate of permanent severe disability among stroke patients by almost as much. The same amount, along with additional staffing costs, would be required to provide the recommended second unit.

Source: The Irish Times October 29, 2018 13:59 UTC