Denver, CO - Rick Hamilton's life is all about routine. He looks back at his life and sees hundreds of days that were all quite similar to one another: 5 a.m. wakeup, cup of coffee, pack a bag, head to the St. Louis airport.
Business travel will get you used to that routine pretty quickly, but it will also wake you up to the things outside of that routine.
On Oct. 31, 2011, routine literally got blurry during Rick Hamilton's business trip from St. Louis to Salt Lake City.
"I remember sitting there working and getting frustrated because I couldn't see the cursor on my computer," Hamilton said.
Soon after that, he started coughing. A flight attendant came over to him and asked if he was OK.
"I asked for a glass of water, and she immediately wheels around and goes to the front of the plane, picks up the mic, and says, 'Is there a medical professional on board?'" he said. "I thought, 'Oh great, some sick person is going to get me late to making my meeting later today.'"
That sick person was Hamilton. When he asked the flight attendant for water, she noticed the left side of his face drooping and slight slurred speech.
An ER physician on the plane responded to the call for help, instructing Hamilton to lie down before placing an aspirin tablet under his tongue. The flight attendant brought back an oxygen mask and strapped it around his mouth. Both believed Hamilton was in the process of having a stroke.
Within minutes, the plane's pilot diverted the flight to Denver International Airport. Shortly after that, Dr. Matthew West with University of Colorado Hospital responded to Hamilton and determined he had a large arterial clot on the right side of his brain. Hamilton also had weakness on the left side of his body, which initial imaging revealed was due to a stroke.
Despite the clot, West did not believe the clot posed a severe risk to Hamilton's long-term well being due to good brain flow activity. Nonetheless, he asked for a second opinion with Dr. David Kumpe at University of Colorado Hospital.
"What I was concerned about ... there are patients who have an occlusion like this who look good initially, only to crash a few hours later. They can wind up having a major stroke even though initially they were doing well," Kumpe said.
Kumpe applied intravenous TPA to the artery, which did not dissolve Hamilton's clot. He then applied it directly to the clot with a catheter, an extremely risky and much more invasive approach that is only used in severe circumstances.
Hamilton's circumstances became much more severe when he suffered a massive stroke right on the operating room table during the TPA treatment. His entire left side became paralyzed during that period, but it happened in the best possible place - in the hospital.
Within 15 minutes, Kumpe and his team observed the clot dissolving completely, followed shortly by the return of Hamilton's left side.
There were perhaps just a few seconds to spare throughout the whole process. Without the quick acting of the ER physician on board Hamilton's plane, the pilot in diverting the flight to Denver and the stroke response team at University of Colorado Hospital, Hamilton may have been paralyzed or lost his life.
"Like my doctor said, 'I don't know what you believe in,' but it wasn't my time to go. Or be disabled," Hamilton said.
At 57, Hamilton savors every second of life, thanks to some quick thinking and some really good Colorado doctors.
"You say, 'Wow, I dodged a bullet,'" he said.
For more information about warning signs and life after a stroke, visit the Stroke Organization's website.
(KUSA-TV © 2012 Multimedia Holdings Corporation)
(KUSA-TV © 2012 Multimedia Holdings Corporation)