TF4UKR Visit Report – Dr Yuliia Vlasiichuk

I had the opportunity to visit Royal Stoke University Hospital in Stoke on Trent, Staffordshire, Great Britain at the invitation of Dr. Phil Ferdinand, Consultant Stroke Physician. I met Phil during a summer school in Birmingham that I attended online. I was impressed by the organisation of work and dreamed of visiting a hospital in Great Britain, so it was a great happiness for me to be there. With the permission of the head of Ward 127 Indira Natarajan my introduction to stroke care in England began.

I would like to note that all specialists were extremely kind to me, shared their interesting cases, findings and thoughts about patients. Certainly, a large number of people work in a stroke unit, such as stroke consultants, senior doctors, first and second year doctors, pharmacologists, therapists, speech therapists, nutritionists, rehabilitators, nurses and other staff. Oh, a stroke nurse is like a godsend for a doctor.

It has been a pleasure to be part of the stroke team that admits the patient in the emergency department and completes the patient’s route in the hospital. For several days I worked with a doctor on call, so I saw various cases of hospitalisations, most of them with previous thrombolytic therapy in another hospital, so our goal was to refer the patient for thrombectomy.

Thanks to the interventional radiologists, I was able to be present and even assist during the thrombectomy. 12 minutes from the puncture to the opening of the vessel is an amazing result. And I could see the clinical result during morning examinations with stroke consultants.

What happens to patients after discharge? It was very interesting to visit patients at home with the Early Supportive discharge and Community stroke team. After discharge, patients are given instructions on how to behave at home, how to prepare breakfast and perform daily household chores, how to return to normal life with a neurological deficit. I spent one day in the Rehab ward round, Haywood Hospital with Dr. Sanyal. Today in Ukraine rehabilitation is also given a lot of attention, so it was interesting to learn how rehabilitation goals are set in England, when they change, how to achieve them and how to encourage the patient to recover. One of the important days for me was the day I spent with the Dr. Phil Ferdinand in young stroke clinic. I was interested in the list of diagnostic and laboratory examinations that young patients with a stroke undergo.

I am very grateful to the stroke team of Royal Stoke University Hospital for the interesting and informative days.

Thanks to ESO and TF4UKR for this opportunity. My main goal was to find new information and new knowledge about stroke treatment to share with my colleagues, improve myself and help stroke patients in Ukraine in future!